L.A. SCHOOL REPORT -- A former Garfield student, Janet Juarez, a freshman at Yale who credited Murchie with inspiring her as a student, nominated him. Since receiving the award, and since L.A. School Report posted a story about it last week, Murchie said he has been inundated with messages from former students.
While he didn’t end up at UC Berkeley, he did end up at San Francisco State, where he eventually got into the graduate English program. Eleven years ago, hoping to get into a doctorate program but needing a job, he landed an interview at Garfield to teach high school English. Before the interview, he studied the school’s test scores and demographics, feeling well-prepared when it began.
“And I remember the principal at the time said, ‘Well, is that all you know about Garfield?’ I said, ‘Yeah,’ and I was a little surprised because I had just spat out all these facts. And she said, ‘Well, what about ‘Stand and Deliver’? I just looked at her like, that was here?” Murchie said.