Ransom Everglades Alumni Office: Where did you attend college?
Caroline Murphy: Harvard College.

RE: What was your major?
CM: Music with a language citation in French.

RE: How did you decide to go into teaching?
CM: As someone who always loved school, a career in education was always on my radar. Between my sophomore and junior years of college, I decided to take a gap year to serve with City Year Miami and was placed at Allapattah Middle School (now Georgia Jones Ayers Middle School) where I supported 6th and 8th grade math classrooms. I worked with amazing, brilliant students who were in an environment that was not conducive to learning. When I finished my year with City Year, I knew that a career in the classroom supporting students who do not have the same access to resources that I, and my peers at RE, did was where I could make the most impact. When I returned to Harvard for my junior and senior years, I took advantage of every opportunity to learn more about issues in education – from working on an education policy project, to interning with Boston Public Schools, to enrolling in a course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Educational Justice, to ultimately joining the second cohort of the Harvard Teacher Fellows. Through those experiences, I realized that the beginning of any career in education should start in the classroom, so that’s where I went.

RE: What is a favorite quote?
CM: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

RE: What was your first job?
CM: My first job after I graduated from college was as a 9th grade math teacher at Leadership Public Schools: Richmond. I was placed at LPS Richmond through Harvard Teacher Fellows program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and worked there for four years until I moved back to Miami to work at The SEED School of Miami.

RE: What is your favorite part of your job?
CM: My students! They make the job exciting and ensure that no two days are the same. I am fortunate to work with young adults who are bright and determined, and it’s a pleasure to witness their growth every day.

RE: Who was your favorite RE teacher and why?
CM: This question is so hard! There are so many teachers at RE who had tremendous impact on me. Mr. Kappelman taught me to trust my abilities by forcing me to grapple with my questions on our 8th grade science projects. Ms. Szolodko and Dr. Stone taught me how to write with purpose and clarity. Mrs. Duty and Dr. Stavisky taught me the why and how behind the math, which has greatly shaped how I teach my students.

RE: Extracurricular activities when at RE?
CM: Chorus and Math Team.

RE: What’s one of the best things you learned about yourself at RE?
CM: My time at RE instilled in me a love of learning and an intellectual curiosity that I carry with me today. Thanks to an amazing faculty and staff on both the middle school and high school campuses, I learned how to learn, how to ask questions, how to explore, and how to make mistakes. I entered college unafraid to take academic risks and challenge myself. I continue to seek out opportunities to learn new skills, be it taking Spanish lessons to better communicate with my students’ parents in their native language or joining the board of a literary arts and education non-profit, ConTextos, supporting work in El Salvador and Chicago.

RE: What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning?
CM: In addition to my cold brew coffee and alarm clock, it’s the understanding that my students, their families, and our community need educators who show up every day and bring their best. And, who doesn’t like spending every day trying to get students to laugh (or cringe) at math jokes?

RE: What book are you currently reading?
CM: I’m currently reading Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor and listening to Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba by Tom Gjelten.

RE: Are you still singing?
CM: In my car and in the shower, but not currently with a choral ensemble.