Duncan Kirkwood has been a motivational speaker focusing on resilience since he first garnered the position while in the army back in 2012.12 years later, the now-national speaker finds himself motivating and building up thousands while using lessons from the beginning. 

"You learn so much discipline. You learn leadership. I learned I learned how to get through something difficult because the Army took the option of quitting away," Kirkwood said.

Kirkwood's career took a different path after the army, running campaigns for the Erie County Legislature in 2017 and 2019, but ultimately fell short. The national speaker didn't find his full passion for resilience training until 2020 when he published his book "Rerouting".

"I said, I'm going to write a book for the everyday professional to learn how to build resilient skills so they could take a short read and it would introduce them to a concept that will help bring them joy and make them more present," Kirkwood said. 

Kirkwood hasn't looked back since the publishing, during his three-and-a-half-year tenure as a national speaker, he has reached out to hundreds of schools in the country

"I try to blend the practical and the theoretical concepts, and I put it in a language that everyday professionals can use and apply to their daily lives," Kirkwood said. 

Speaking at BOCES on Tuesday, September 3, is just another example as the resilience trainer emphasized making time for joy and preventing burnout this school year. 

"I could get them a little closer to that versus the burnout and the feeling frustrated and overwhelmed and overworked," Kirkwood said, "Then that means that when the kids come into that classroom, they get that teacher with the spark again."

BOCES first day of classes is this Thursday, September 5.