From drug addict dropout to award-winning scholar
Cory Murphy remembers the last time he did any kind of drug — Dec. 18, 2004.
The Butler native was at a bus station on his way to rehab for heroin addiction when he lit up a joint. Deciding that he should quit all illicit drugs to get better, he decided not to finish the marijuana cigarette and threw it in a puddle.
Murphy, 31, now of Cincinnati, did drugs for four years. Today, he is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati and is in GE Aviation's Operations Management Leadership Program.
“I'm just glad that I (made) it,” Murphy said.
He originally started smoking marijuana in 2000 as a student at Butler High School to better fit in and cope with bullying. He was a member of the football team, and he said it was a popular activity.
“It extended far beyond the football team. It was the cool thing to do,” Murphy said.
He started to dabble in heroin in 2002.
“That seemed to be one of the popular things to do,” Murphy said.
He initially snorted heroin, but eventually switched to shooting it into his arm.
“It's much, much more efficient to shoot it,” Murphy said.
He was expelled in 2002 from school after being accused of selling marijuana to a teammate, a charge that Murphy disputes. Being expelled, and not seeing the people who he previously saw every day, was a shock to Murphy. He became depressed.
“At the time, I thought my life was over,” Murphy said.
It was at this time that Murphy became consumed with doing heroin. He lost the muscle that he developed playing football and lost weight. He concealed needle marks and bruises on his arms with a hooded sweat shirt. He also lost the desire to eat.
“At the height of my addiction, the only thing I would eat all day was a bottle of Lipton sweet iced tea,” Murphy said, saying he also would grab a few items from McDonalds every couple of days.
During this time, he managed to attend the Butler County Community College from 2002 to 2004, eventually attaining an associate degree in communication.“I wasn't the best student,” Murphy said.He mostly was able to keep his addiction hidden from his family.In 2003, Murphy went to a rehabilitation center in Florida, where he got clean. When he got back to Butler, he relapsed almost immediately.He wanted to go back, but he said that facility was not pleased with his relapse. A similar facility in Cincinnati was able to take him.Murphy stopped doing heroin in November 2004, about a month before heading to rehab. He was driving to meet his dealer when he pulled over and decided to quit. He was on Suboxone, a drug used to help treat opiate addiction, at the time.“I'm going to quit because I want to,” Murphy said.In December 2004, he traveled by bus to Cincinnati for rehab.He initially planned on spending six to eight months in Ohio. However, he began volunteering while in rehab, which he found rewarding. He also realized that if he returned to Butler, he would relapse again. His mother agreed.“At least when you're in Cincinnati, I don't have to worry about you,” she said to him at the time.Despite his best efforts, he was unable to find a job, and he subsisted with the help of food stamps.“That was good for a while, because I felt like I deserved it,” Murphy said.In 2007, Murphy had the revelation that his life could be a lot more than what it was.“I am still alive. I still have plenty of years left. It's not over,” Murphy said.He decided that he would go to school to get a bachelor's degree. He enrolled in the University of Cincinnati as a transfer student in 2008. His first year there, he received nine scholarships and joined six student organizations.
One of the scholarships he won was the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship for Study Abroad from the U.S. State Department, which is a nationally competitive scholarship. Murphy said he was selected out of 3,000 applicants.Murphy chose to major in business. He initially wanted to go to law school, which was something he always wanted to do.An adviser told him that he should major in something like business if he wanted to go to law school. He eventually decided that business was what he wanted to do.As a part of the Gilman scholarship, he was able to study in Turkey for a year. While he was there, he learned to speak Turkish. Murphy said learning the language was difficult, but said English was forbidden in the program.After he returned from Turkey, he got a co-op position with GE Aviation in Cincinnati. A co-op position involves a person who studies half of the time and then works the other half of the time.With GE, he also got to travel to Germany. He was a part of a program in which he learned German in the United States and then went to Germany to work at GE Aviation near Munich. Murphy said he liked Germany, and said he would consider seeking German citizenship in the future.Murphy also joined the International Business Club at the university, and became its president.While president, he developed a high school outreach initiative where the club teamed up with foreign exchange students and ventured out into high schools to give presentations on the importance of studying abroad and learning another language, and how they should start planning for such trips as early as possible.He graduated Dec. 13, 2014. A few days later, he celebrated 10 years of being drug free. At his commencement ceremony, he had a picture taken of his graduation cap, which said “10 years clean — 12/18.”In April, he was awarded the Presidential Leadership Medal of Excellence, which is the university's highest student honor. He was one of six winners in a graduating class of 6,300 people.“It's such a huge honor coming from the president. It's a huge deal,” Murphy said.He said part of the reason he wanted to go to the university was the award, saying it was a way to make sure he was on track.“The medal was one of the reasons I enrolled,” Murphy said.Murphy was awarded the medal entirely because of his merits and involvement as a student — the university had no idea about his past.“Which was the best part,” Murphy said.At a dinner where the award winners were introduced, Murphy stood up to speak about himself. That is when he revealed that he used to be hooked on heroin and had lived in the bad part of town on food stamps before coming to school.“It floored everybody. It really touched a lot of people,” Murphy said.At the spring commencement ceremony in May, university President Santa Ono profiled Murphy in his address. Ono said Murphy struggled to survive after his move to Cincinnati.“But Cory did not give up; he realized that he was lucky to be alive and resolved to accomplish much more with his life,” Ono said in his speech.Additionally, UC Magazine is working on a story about Murphy.UC Magazine editor John Bach said the story will appear on the magazine's website late summer or early fall. He said the story of Murphy's accomplishments, especially considering his past, is great to feature.“Cory has a really compelling story about life transformation,” Bach said. “He's sort of a natural story.”Murphy said he is considering working on a book about his past. He said he likely will seek an MBA degree in the future.“That's what I'm aiming for,” Murphy said.In retrospect, he said getting kicked out of high school was good for him. If he was not, he said he likely would have graduated and gone to college in a normal fashion. In this case, he was forced to fight and take a different path.“Getting expelled was absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire life,” Murphy said.His mother, Donna Murphy of Butler, said she is proud of her son and his ability to get over his past problems.“I've always been proud of Cory. What he's accomplished recently has pushed him over the top,” Donna Murphy said. “The sky's the limit for Cory.”
