Desiree Murphy
Class of 2010

A Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar from Wichita Falls, Texas, Desiree is a Sociology major with a minor in Women’s & Gender Studies.  Her goal is to become an attorney, and maybe even a judge.  Desiree has always been an active member of her community. In her public high school, she was the drum major in the marching band and was the 2^nd highest ranking officer in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), a program that instills in students the values of citizenship, service to their country, personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment.

Desiree was president of the Academic Success Project – a college-prep program targeting minority students who have the desire and zeal to advance in higher education. Through the program, which was implemented in the three high schools in the district, free SAT camps are administered and are open to students of any age who are looking for an extra push in order to succeed. The classes are taught by current high school students qualified to do so based on their own SAT scores. These students, like Desiree, go on to some of the nation’s finest institutions of higher education.

“I chose to attend Brandeis because it was the one school I visited where I wasn’t being presented with anything that was untrue.  Brandeis was the only place where I felt people were saying ‘here’s the school... we hope you like it.’  There were no flashy sales pitches or misrepresentations of the student body.  The people [at Brandeis] are intelligent and well-rounded, and are genuine about their undertakings and passions”.

Desiree also enjoyed the welcoming atmosphere she found here. During her first semester, she went to chat with her professor, Bernadette Brooten, a faculty member in the Near Eastern and Juddaic Studies department.

“I went to her office to talk about a paper, and we started talking about the slave trade, a topic that was being discussed in two of my classes: Introduction to African History and my University Seminar on Slavery, Religion and Women. Our conversation lasted for an hour and a half, and I felt that my professor, who also happens to be my academic advisor, was very interested in what I had to say.”

Now, Desiree looks forward to visiting her advisor because she feels she has gotten to know her in the classroom, but more importantly, outside of the classroom.

“Asking my professor about what classes to take is easy because we both now know who I am as a person, and where my academic interests lie”. While she enjoys the environment of Brandeis, Desiree relishes the opportunities to go into downtown Boston. She visits Boston three or four times every weekend, “typically to go to the Museum of Fine Arts (which boasts free admission to Brandeis students), shopping on Newbury Street and visiting the Boston Public Library, which is huge compared to the Wichita Falls library”.  Desiree also frequents Boston Commons and enjoys casually walking around city… particularly because “you never know what you’ll come across!”

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