The end of the 2024-2025 school year marks the departure of Ralph Miller from Austin High School. Out of his 31 years of teaching, Mr. Miller has spent 16 years at Austin High School. As an original leader for the Academy for Global Studies (AGS), Mr. Miller was an early proponent of the shift towards academies, as hundreds of students and teachers came and went through the program. Ultimately, students and faculty alike agree Mr. Miller’s greatest accomplishment was the development of the Model United Nations (Model UN) program at Austin High School. So what has his time at Austin High looked like?
According to Mr. Miller, “I got my degree in English. I was reading and writing, and I wanted to know how to read and write well.” Sadly, the degree lacked many job opportunities beyond teaching, so Mr. Miller began waiting tables, where he happened to meet his future wife. Wanting a change in his occupation, Mr. Miller’s goals became simple: “I could use my education and actually do some good in the world with it”, and “If I wanted to continue to hang out with her, I needed to have a better job than waiting on tables.” So, he went back to school to get certified in teaching. Beginning with Fullmore Junior High School, Mr. Miller taught English to middle school students for 15 years. Eventually, Mr. Miller left Fullmore for his home at Austin High.
When Mr. Miller first started teaching, “there was one academy, AGS. It was not terribly popular in some parts of the campus, not everybody was on board with academies at all.” Being the “low man on the totem pole” for the English department, when the time came to replace the AGS English teacher, Mr. Miller drew the short straw. Nonetheless, Mr. Miller stated, “I fell in love with it, it was awesome. I made some really good friends, planned some really cool units, we traveled, we did a lot of really great stuff.” Mr. Miller was fortunate enough to see his daughter go through AGS at Austin High, making him her teacher for some years. “The only times I went on the other trips were with her,” said Mr. Miller, “ I went to Costa Rica, New Mexico, and Thailand with her. She was never in my group, she was a typical teenager in that she didn’t want me to hover around her but we were on the same trip and made those memories together which was nice.” There also wasn’t an in-place Model UN program upon his arrival. Building it from nothing, Mr. Miller, with the help of his students, grew the program into four class periods, then an entire conference with field trips. “It’s been because the kids were fantastic,” commented Mr. Miller, “it’s been probably the most accomplished and involved program I’ve ever been associated with.”
So what’s next? Curriculum-wise, Mr. Miller knows the program is in good hands. The hundreds of students invested in Model UN shouldn’t be concerned about the program continuing to develop and function, as Elizabeth Clausen is stepping in. According to Mr. Miller, “Ms. Clausen is really smart and she works really hard. She’s invested and the kids love her. So yeah I think it’s going to be great.” What will Mr. Miller do after his exit? “I don’t know. It’s the wonderful thing about life you never know, so we’ll see,” replied Mr. Miller.
