Mark Murphy

About Mark

• My father worked as a builder, so I spent a lot of time helping him build houses and learning about good work ethic.
• I knew early on that I wanted to work with kids, but I wasn’t quite sure in what capacity.
• The day after I graduated high school, I started working at a job where I supported kids in a residential treatment center.
• In college, I started diving deeper into learning about systemic inequities, which solidified my desire to want to help those who are struggling yet given the least amount of opportunities.
• I earned my bachelor’s degree in education from the State University of New York at Cortland and started my career as a teacher.
• After teaching for a few years, I moved up to become a school principal.
• I later moved into the nonprofit space, supporting other school principals, and then got the opportunity to serve as the Secretary of Education for Delaware.
• After having hundreds of conversations with teenagers, I saw that they have so many passions and interests but little opportunity to pursue them, so I started GripTape to help them do that!