Duncan Kirkwood brings message of passion, perseverance, and purpose to Merrill students

On Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, students at Merrill High School got more than a standard morning assembly. Motivational speaker Duncan Kirkwood delivered a dynamic, highly interactive presentation built around three core pillars: passion, perseverance, and purpose. Through personal anecdotes, onstage demonstrations, and direct challenges to the crowd, Kirkwood urged students to reframe their relationship with failure and step boldly out of their comfort zones. That afternoon, he took the same message to Prairie River Middle School.
Kirkwood, an author, veteran, and global resilience advocate, drew on his own experiences as an inner-city student to deliver a message centered on perseverance, resilience, and growth. The presentation was made possible by Merrill’s Great Speakers Forum.

Interactive lessons on strength and failure
Rather than standing at a podium, Kirkwood’s style was participatory from the start. He often called for volunteers, went out into the audience, interacted with students, and handed out books to those who participated.
At one point, he called for volunteers “who have great energy” to join him on stage, and he wasted no time getting physical with his lessons. To show how struggle builds strength, he used a student athlete named Matthew as an example. Kirkwood had the audience imagine Matthew curling heavy 40-pound dumbbells while Kirkwood lifted one-pound pink weights. Which of us is getting stronger, he asked students.

“Because he’s doing something that’s difficult, because it’s causing him tension ... he’s getting stronger,” Kirkwood said, drawing a parallel to students taking difficult classes like AP History or Calculus to prepare for college.
He used another demonstration to shift students’ perspective on adversity, casting one student as a four-year-old named “Ben” and another as his 96-year-old “Grandma Harley” helping him learn to ride a bike. When the metaphorical grandma lets go and the child falls, Kirkwood said the natural response is simply to get back up and try again. “The falls are not meant to break you. They are building you,” he said.

Personal setbacks and pivots
Kirkwood did not shy away from his own setbacks. He described being a “C student” in high school and facing rejections from colleges he had hoped to attend. “All I got was rejected. Can y’all see how that would almost break a person? Like make you feel like you’re not good enough,” he said. He eventually attended Alabama State University, which he called “the greatest four years of my life” because the distance from home forced him to mature and become independent.
He also shared a more recent defeat — losing two consecutive campaigns for Erie County legislator after pouring time, money, and volunteer hours into the effort. That loss eventually led him to write a book, which launched a global speaking career. “My life has become so much bigger, impactful ... But it’s only possible because I failed,” he said. Those failures led to his ultimate success in what he was called to do.

To connect with his audience, Kirkwood pointed to something familiar. He asked a student about playing Fortnite and noted that when a new update drops, players know they will be terrible on day one — but they accept that and keep playing until they master it. “I want you to have that mindset for everything you do,” he said.

Purpose, goal setting, and the GPS mindset
On the topic of purpose, Kirkwood urged students to aim beyond what they see directly around them. To illustrate how a big goal immediately focuses the mind, he offered a hypothetical $500 reward to any student who could touch a speaker suspended high above the stage. When students instantly began scheming ways to reach it, he made his point. “As soon as you set the goal, all your energy starts moving towards it. So why set little goals, right?” he said.
He also encouraged students to think of life like a GPS. When a driver makes a wrong turn, the GPS does not panic — it simply reroutes. “Live your life like that,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you had a setback last week or you didn’t win the game ... You just keep moving forward and eventually you will get to your destination.”

Facing the crowd: real questions, real challenges

During an open Q&A session, Kirkwood promised “real answers” with “no sugar coating.” When a female student asked how she could be braver, he challenged her on the spot — instructing her to run down the aisle and on the way back, to high-five her classmates sitting along the aisle. She was initially hesitant but eventually took the challenge and did it. The entire room exploded in cheers and clapping for her. “I’m saying to you, if you do the brave thing, that fear you got, it will quickly dissipate and you’ll realize, why was I afraid?” Kirkwood said.
In another demonstration, a student volunteer named Mason walked across the floor while peers booed him, then repeated the walk while they cheered. The point was clear: It’s easier with support, but ... “This is your journey ... you got to take the walk,” Kirkwood said.

The bison mindset
One of Kirkwood’s most memorable analogies involved bison and buffaloes facing an approaching storm. Buffaloes, he explained, run away from the storm — and because they are moving in the same direction it is traveling, they stay trapped inside it far longer. Bison do the opposite. “The bison immediately take off running towards the storm,” he said. By moving into it, they cross through it faster and come out the other side. “When you have a storm, when you have a hard time ... don’t run from it. Run towards it. Deal with it so you can get through it,” he said.

A lasting mandate

The assembly closed with Kirkwood leading the room in a “resilience pledge,” with students repeating lines including “I will always place my mission first” and “I will never quit.” Students were released to classes, but all those who heard his message were left with a clear charge: embrace the falls, ignore the noise, and step out of your comfort zone.