Harsh light in a challenging atmosphere

For this assignment I was covering a program being implemented at one of the high schools trying to get troubled kids interested in different courses other than the required math, science, english, etc. to keep them in school and show them different types of opportunities for college. The program teaches them all about shooting digital video and how to edit it into movies and shorts. I really tried to track these kids down actually shooting a movie, or even working in groups on their movies, problem was they were all finished and having their finals the next day. We needed the photo ASAP and it couldn't wait till they got back from winter break. So, I went to their final, got some photos of the kids doing last minute edits from their computers. It ended up just being shots of people staring into computers. Ugh. So, I pushed myself to think more creatively, and decided to shoot the teacher. I came up with a concept to project one of the kids' completed movies on a screen, have the teacher stand in front and somehow get the overflow of the projection onto one side of his face, and flash the other side of his face with the strobe. It sounded great in theory. And eventually I would have got there. But I had five minutes with the guy in between his classes and the 30 or so kids were all just staying there in that dark room chattering away and kept bugging me with, "why are you taking his photo?" and "who are you?". So, originally I flashed him with direct strobe with a diffuser. I thought the light was too bright and I wanted more ambient from the projection. I kept fiddling around and decided to try the umbrella. The umbrella washed out the whole mood. In the end I just kinda gave up because he had to get back to teaching. But when I got back to my desk, I found this image, and it really grew on me. It was just a test shot, so it explains the harsh light and why he's not looking into the camera. But it ended up showing his character the best, and I kinda like the harshness...though I would have like the projection to shine on his face a little. And I would have picked a different projection to use if I had the time. And I should have moved that awful "congratulations" sign away. Anyways...onwards!