​Nathaniel Kirkland was a man of his people. He dedicated his life to helping others in and out of his community. Nathaniel was a man who did not just ask for change, but instead he became the change that his community needed. Nathaniel put in countless hours of service for his community. He put his own needs aside to ensure that his community and people were thriving. This made Nathaniel the foundation of his community. Nathaniel was also a well­educated man who installed the importance of education into others around him, he was an inspirer. Like Nathaniel, I see education and selflessness as an opportunity to grow as a person and develop my strengths. 

I have always had a passion for helping the people around me, just as Nathaniel did. I believe that serving my community is the best way for me to be a part of change. I am a person who doesn't like accepting unfortunate circumstances, when I see other people doing the opposite and accepting those circumstances I want to step in and help. All throughout high school I have devoted countless amounts of my time into community service, but, things such as food drives and helping my local church was not the type of service I was looking for. I wanted to get deeper into helping my community, in particular the youth in my community.

​Like Nathaniel, I want to not only provide for my community, but install the importance of education in them. I want to show my community that with dedication and hard work, success is within their grasp. Along with my tech organization I want also continue philanthropy work. Hopefully, I will be able to create more opportunities for my community with my own wealth. I want to give many people, similar to me, the same opportunities that are being given to me, I pursue a college career. I want to do this with financial support. Besides doing service work while in college, I want to work do advocacy work. Like service work, I have a passion for policy and advocacy work. While in college, I want join organizations that are looking to change flawed or missing policies. I have previously done this type of work in my youth leadership council group, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

​Nathaniel Kirkland was a powerful and impactful man. He was a leader and a motivator in his community. He changed his community through service and knowledge. As a young black man from Philadelphia, I see Terrell as the perfect role model and I'm sure anyone who had the honor of meeting him would say the same. Terrell is someone I strive to be like. He changed his community and I am going to doing the same. 

​​- Dewayne Baxter (Excerpts from personal statement)

Terrell L. Bruce Scholar: Dewayne Baxter

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