UWyo MagazineDo What Has to be Done

January 2014 | Vol. 15 No. 2

For Alicia Murphy, doing what has to be done meant enduring six surgeries so that she could achieve her dream of becoming an elementary school teacher. While attending the UW/Casper College Center, Murphy was in a boating accident that caused her to lose a leg and nearly bleed to death.

“I had to take a semester off,” Murphy recalls. “Then I knew I needed to finish and become a teacher. I’ve always known that I wanted to be a teacher and that’s what was meant for me.”

But that meant one more surgery. “I knew I was going to need another surgery if I was going to be a teacher because at the elementary level you’re on the floor, and you’re up and down. I had some issues, so I went for my last surgery in 2010.”

Murphy is now teaching first grade in Douglas and coaching the volleyball team at Douglas High School.

“Anything in your life can change in the blink of an eye,” she says. Knowing that has changed her life and reminded her to stay positive and be the type of person who inspires others. 

It’s that outlook she hopes to give her students. “I want to impact my students in helping them have that positive outlook on life,” Murphy says. “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”

IMPACT: Inspiring a positive outlook in the first-graders she teaches and the high school volleyball athletes she coaches.

> Talk Less and Say More

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Alicia Murphy

Alicia Murphy
After losing her leg in a boating accident, Alicia Murphy finished school and achieved her dream of becoming a teacher.

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