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Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund Celebrates 30 years of Transforming Chicago Youth
On Saturday, September 28, the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund (DMSF) will celebrate three decades of helping students in Chicago’s most economically challenged communities navigate a path to and through college, starting with a high-school scholarship to college prep high schools throughout the city and country.
In 1989, brothers James K. "Jim" Murphy ’71 and Robert M. “Bob” Murphy ’74, born and raised in Highland Park along with their family and friends, started DMSF granting scholarships to four students in memory of their father, Daniel, to honor his sacrifices to make sure they themselves received a good education at Loyola Academy. Today, more than 460 Murphy Scholars are benefiting from the program at more than 80 partner high schools throughout the City of Chicago and at boarding schools around the country.
“This is a milestone moment for us,” says Jim Murphy, co-founder. “Thirty years ago, we embarked on a bold and daring plan to give our students who face financial and other obstacles, including access to resources and people they might not otherwise meet, and create opportunities that broaden their view of the world and their understanding of their potential. There is no shortage of great kids out there. We just need to find them and lift them up. We are working to break OUT of a cycle of poverty and help them break INTO a cycle of opportunity.”
Jose Rodriguez, executive director adds: “Murphy Scholars produce extraordinary outcomes because they are given the task to succeed at the most selective high schools in Chicago and around the country. The real nature of this work has been transforming for students who do a phenomenal job academically at our partner schools. It’s changed the trajectory of their lives. What’s most significant is that they’ve come back to mentor and support other young people in the city.”
Murphy Scholars have gone on to graduate from some of the nation’s most prestigious colleges with 64 percent the first in their families to graduate college. The program is developing leaders and role models including Chicago area business professionals, lawyers, physicians, teachers and more who are returning to mentor scholars, serve on the board and give back to the organization.
Consider these milestones during the last three decades:
· More than 3,000 scholarships have been awarded over the course of the last 30 years
· 100% of Murphy Scholars graduate high school
· 84% of Murphy Scholars who attend four-year colleges and universities have graduated or are on track to graduate, with a bachelor’s degree
About the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund
The mission of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund is to give high school scholarship assistance and educational support to Chicago students from under-resourced neighborhoods. DMSF seeks to make a life-altering difference in the lives of its Scholars by providing them with the best opportunity to succeed in high school and college, igniting potential and enriching lives. The average annual income of a Murphy Scholar family of five is currently about $38,000. Half of the students come from single-parent households. For more information, please visit our website at www.dmsf.org.
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