Our Mission

Micro University exists to equip the people who show up for young people — teachers, counselors, coaches, case managers, justice professionals, and community staff — with curricula and training that actually change outcomes. We believe human development isn't a slogan. It's a system: identity, regulation, relationship, and repair, built session by session, week by week, until it holds.

Our Founder

Micro University was founded by Robert A. Murphy, a former teacher, state education administrator, and school district leader who saw the same gap again and again: powerful social-emotional learning tools for elementary students, and almost nothing built with the same depth for adolescents, young men, and the adults trying to reach them.

That gap became A.B.L.E. and M.A.L.E. — curricula grounded not just in research, but in lived experience. Robert's own memoir, Ni@$as Ain't Astronauts: Love and Trauma in an American Family, provides part of the narrative foundation for A.B.L.E., exploring how trauma shapes identity, language, and the belief in what's possible. Micro University's programs exist to interrupt that cycle for the next generation.

What We Believe

●       Behavior is communication. Every act of defiance, withdrawal, or aggression is an attempt to survive a threat or express an unmet need — not evidence of a broken kid.

●       The relationship is the intervention. No technique works outside of a genuine connection.

●       Crisis is not character. A young person overwhelmed in the moment is not a young person without potential.

●       Recovery is the goal — not compliance. We aim to guide people back to safety, dignity, and connection, from which growth can resume.

●       Capacity outlasts a training day. Real change requires systems, certification, and internal capacity — not a single workshop.

Our Approach

Every Micro University program is trauma-informed, relationship-centered, and built on established frameworks — CASEL social-emotional learning standards, Polyvagal Theory, Nonviolent Communication, CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention, PBIS/MTSS, and restorative practices — translated into practical, facilitator-ready sessions that work in real classrooms, real programs, and real crises.