Liberty alumnus shares journey from being an at-risk youth to becoming a Harvard educator in new memoir

After years of turning his life story once characterized by delinquency and failure into a platform to encourage others and spark change in education and beyond, Liberty University alumnus Brandon Fleming (’13) has now written and published a memoir, “Miseducated.”

Fleming is the founder and CEO of the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, which recruits underserved high school youth with minimal to no prior debate experience to compete against hundreds of elite debaters from over 25 countries. Since the program was created in 2017, every cohort trained by Fleming has won the international competition. This achievement caught the attention of national news outlets and Fleming was featured on CNN, ESPN, Good Morning America, and more. In 2020, he was recognized on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list. His efforts have also been recognized by The Root Magazine, which named him among the 100 most influential African Americans in the United States.

Growing up in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, Fleming experienced an arduous childhood of abuse, drugs, and poor performance in the classroom, but his athletic ability opened the door to a college education at Liberty, where he was prepared to play for the basketball team beginning in 2008. However, after a knee injury put a sudden stop to his future on the court and he struggled in the classroom, Fleming dropped out of Liberty and soon found himself in a cycle of hopelessness and uncertainty. He even went as far as attempting suicide, but his story did not end there. He found a passion for academia and began to see the Lord guiding him back to Liberty and onto a path to influence youth who had faced struggles similar to his own.

“Through his personal narrative, readers witness Fleming’s transformation, self-education, and how he takes what he learns about words and power to help others like himself,” the memoir’s description says. “‘Miseducated’ is an honest memoir about resilience, visibility, role models, and overcoming all expectations.”

While earning his bachelor’s in English from Liberty, Fleming founded the S.Y. Scholars Program Inc., which began as an educational program for at-risk African American high school youths in Lynchburg, Va., and that program’s success caught the attention of others, beginning his journey to Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta and Harvard not long after.

“The book was very painful to write,” Fleming told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I wasn’t sure I should tell what a reprobate I’ve been. But I wrote it for the people who are in a pit of despair, who think they have nowhere to run. I want to show people that no one is beyond redemption.”

Watch Fleming share more of his story:

Brandon Fleming visited Liberty in Spring 2019 for a special School of Education Convocation Select: