If there was a moment that Alea Murphy knew for certain she would work with young children as a vocation, it was in 2005, when a struggling seventh-grader at Pimlico Middle School finally got it.
The student had been unable to grasp a math concept. Murphy, working as a mentor in the University of Maryland's America Counts after-school program, tried repeatedly to explain. They achieved the breakthrough together.
"I went about it a different way and he understood it," said Murphy, who is a hurdler for Towson University when she isn't working with kids. "It was like an epiphany. It made me feel so worthy as a person, and grateful that somebody else understood what I was thinking."
Indeed, what made the moment profound was that Murphy had been in that boy's seat once. Not with math concepts, but with reading. Not as a seventh-grader, but as a first-grader.
Criticized by a teacher for reading too slowly, she came to hate books and reading. She considered it a waste of time even into her teen years. Now, however, she has come full circle.
Murphy, 21, is a junior at Towson with a dual major in early childhood education and elementary education. She has a partial scholarship on the track and field team. But here's the real kicker:
Today, the young woman from Clarks Summit, Pa. -- who once would rather have done anything than read -- is self-publishing a children's book titled Learning with Lilly.
Its 16 pages are filled with illustrations and insight into the decision-making process of children, and the mistakes that sometimes accompany the process. The book was the result of a course assignment at Towson.
A version of Learning with Lilly recently reached St. Mary of Mount Carmel in Dunmore, Pa. First-grade teacher Amy Shafer gave it a strong endorsement.
"I thought it was a great book," Shafer said. "It talked about the decisions Lilly [a frog] went through, [deciding] right from wrong. It also asked the students different questions, and that opened up the class to a discussion about what she should do. And the illustrations [Murphy's own] were great."
It isn't something Murphy's mother could have expected when her daughter started school.
"Alea had a very bad experience with her first-grade teacher," Sandy Murphy said. "The woman turned her off completely to anything that had to do with school. There were lots of insults and degrading comments in the classroom specifically to her."
It took years for Murphy to recover. There was plenty of support from her mother, who read to her often, and her father, Joe, who taught her how to handle those fears. There was the obligatory reading of textbooks for classwork.
But there was no reading for enjoyment, no pleasure in the written word.
"I couldn't find a book that I liked, so I never chose to read," she said.
Murphy did have an interest in helping children, though. It showed up at Abington Heights School District, in Clarks Summit, where she assisted teachers at various elementary schools in the area as part of her course work.
It showed up when she became a three-time district champion in the high hurdles and eagerly assisted younger athletes looking for advice.
"She loves kids," Sandy Murphy said. "Always has. She grew up around little ones and kind of took them under her wing."
When it came time to find a college, Alea Murphy chose Towson because it offered the mix of elementary education and track she wanted.
As in the classroom, Murphy serves as a mentor on the track. She has run a 59-second 400 meters, and she recently competed in the pentathlon, winning two of the five events.
"She's our No. 1 hurdler and one of our top 400 runners," Towson track coach Roger Erricker said. "She's a real gem, a joy to coach, a joy to be around. She works with the freshmen and sophomores and helps them. She will be one of our team captains next year, but she already has that leadership quality now."
Murphy's leadership in the classroom probably will have greater impact, however.
"I think she'll be able to pick those out that need special attention," her mother said. "Knowing she was one that didn't get it, she's going to teach them what they need to do and give the extra attention they need."
A literacy course at Towson last semester helped convince her that she can provide needed help. The altruistic Murphy knows how she'll handle a student who has trouble reading, or doesn't like to read.
"If there's a student that can't find any interest in reading, there is a book out there they're going to be interested in," she said. "You just have to find it as a teacher.
"I want to get right into the classroom, right into the children's lives, where they are seeing me five days a week and where I hopefully can help them in all areas of their lives."
ken.murray@baltsun.com