When the pandemic started, many people were met with an unprecedented amount of free time and confusion. While some filled this void with TikTok and Netflix, Colin Murphy, GSB ’22, saw this as an opportunity to focus on his future.

Murphy is studying business administration with a primary concentration in finance, secondary concentration in business law and ethics and a minor in sustainable business. If you have ever had the pleasure to meet this proud Ohio native, you would know that productivity is as essential as oxygen for this scholar. Like any other student, he has his fair share of class-related work, but Murphy has an additional rigorous extracurricular schedule full of enough meetings to scare off most academics. 

In his sophomore year, Colin helped to co-found Fordham’s Pencils of Promise chapter, which focuses on fundraising and supplying resources to students in underfunded school districts, primarily in the Bronx. 

When asked to explain the club’s purpose at Fordham, Murphy explained, “We saw a disconnect between the Fordham student community and the Bronx, and a deeper divide based on academic opportunity in the American educational system. We knew we could do something to help bring greater educational equality and believed the best way to do so was to start a club.”

 He is also a member of the USG Sustainability Committee, where he focuses on renewable energy projects. As if he wasn’t busy enough, he also is a part of Change the Chamber Lobby for climate, a student-led organization intending to change the United States Chamber of Commerce’s stance on climate change, and urge businesses into revisiting their stances on climate through who they support. He explains his interest in sustainable business by saying, “If I am able to explore my curiosity while pursuing the greater good, then I will have fulfilled what I sought in coming to Fordham.”

Murphy has been able to carve a path for himself in increasingly uncertain times successfully.

“It is really easy to get angry at the world around you because there are so many problems with solutions and so much avoidable tragedy,” he said. “My way of coping with this is by working towards solutions for specific issues, so I do not get lost in a world that seems to be constantly collapsing.” 

I hope that we can learn from Murphy’s and find new meaningful passions to fill our lives as we all grapple with an ever-changing world.