Murphy serves as alumni volunteer, Spanish teacher
By Christian Guerithault ’14
THE ROUNDUP
After six years away from Brophy, Mr. Neil Murphy ’06 returns to teach for one year thanks to the Alumni Service Corps.
“There are a lot of alumni from our schoolthat would love to come back and spend a year in a leadership position,” said Mr. Ted Skowron, ASC coordinator. “We decided we would have three or four alumni come back and work at Brophy for a year, and live in a community together.”
Mr. Murphy decided to come back for a year to get his interests together.
“I graduated from college in 2010, I spent the next two years working in Washington D.C., originally for a public interest law firm and then for the U.S. State Department and I’m going to law school in 2013, and I wanted a year in between working for the government and for the law firm,” Mr. Murphy said. “It’s a time to focus on getting my interests in line for what I want to study.”
The objective of the Alumni Service Corps is to have some graduates come back to Brophy and serve in some form for one year.
“It’s a year of service and teaching for Brophy graduates who have recently finished college to come back and do 11 months of service in some capacity, either in the Loyola Academy or in the Office of Faith and Justice as well as teach one class,” Mr. Murphy said.
Mr. Murphy is teaching one Spanish class, plus he is helping with the Office of Faith and Justice.
“He’s helping with Speech and Debate, he’s helping with the Office of Faith and Justice, he’s teaching a Spanish I class, and he’s subbing,” Mr. Skowron said.
The alumni who return do not only bring a helping hand with their teaching skills. They also have some traits that, not all other teachers do not have.
“Another thing that I think they bring is an energy level, being younger, these guys are between usually 22 and 24, being younger they’re able to relate with students on a different level,” Mr. Skowron said.
Mr. Murphy sees this year as an opportunity to give back.
“To add to the reason why I wanted to come back to Brophy and do the Alumni Service Corps, it presented a really fabulous opportunity to return to a place, Brophy in particular, that was really formative in my adolescent experience and in orienting me toward social justice and providing me the opportunity to give back in a fully different capacity than just a student,” Mr. Murphy said.
