From Homeless to Harvard
November 6th, 2009 by Jane SchneiderThe staff of Youth Villages heard from several inspirational speakers this week at their annual employee conference. Liz Murray, a young woman whose journey from homelessness to Harvard brought the audience to its feet, delivered a simple message: One person can make a difference. Freelance writer Melanie Miller attended her speech:
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by Melanie Miller
It could have all come down to a single slice of pizza.
Seventeen-year-old Liz Murray had been living on the streets of New York City since becoming homeless at age 15 and she was running low — on money, on hope. Rejected by schools because of her failing grades and spotty attendance, her dream of someday going to college were slowly evaporating
She was tired and hungry enough to contemplate using the subway fare to one of her last interviews to buy a slice of pizza, but changed her mind. Instead, she embarked on a journey that would eventually lead her to the world’s most prestigious universities — Harvard.
“Do you want to know how to change your life?” Murray asks Youth Villages attendees during her speech. “The answer is: One empowered choice at a time.”
Murray was born in the Bronx, New York, to loving parents bound by addiction. She tells of being upset with her mother because there often wasn’t food in the house, only to learn her mother hadn’t eaten in three days. At times, she would yell at her father because she needed a new coat, but then notice his own shredded shoes, held together by duct tape. The family lived on welfare as their addiction deepened.
Yet despite being raised in squalid conditions, Murray and her sister knew love — and forgiveness. “People can’t give you what they don’t have,” says Murray.
Her parents drug habit eventually spiraled into an addiction strong enough to take precedence over food and health. Through sharing needles, they contracted HIV. As her mother’s health deteriorated, and the family splintered, Murray wound up on the streets. It was the wake of burying her mother, who died of AIDS, that the teen found the strength and determination to change her situation, promising her mother she would complete her education. Despite being homeless, she realized she had the power to change her life.
“I had to let go of the belief that my story was reason enough for me not to have a choice,” says Murray. She decided to return to high school, but encountered people unwilling to give her a chance. That was, until she decided to ignore her hunger pangs and interview with Perry Weiner from the Humanities Preparatory Academy.
He became her mentor.
She worked hard, completing four years of school work in two, studying in stairwells and sleeping on friends’ couches or in subway cars. Her diligence paid off, earning Murray a slot for a field trip to Boston, reserved for the school’s top 10 students. The trip was her first time out of New York City, and it was their visit to Harvard that the dream began to take root.
She didn’t know how the tuition would be paid, but remained hopeful that a door would open. And it did, thanks to a New York Times sponsored scholarship.
“Don’t get tripped up when people tell you what’s probably, realistic and likely,” says Murray. At 29, Murray has done what some would consider impossible – graduated from Harvard.
Her memoir, Breaking Night, has been published. She’s been the subject of a Lifetime movie, shared the stage with people like Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dali Lama – and received Oprah Winfrey’s Chutzpah Award. Currently, she remains at Harvard, now as a graduate student in psychology.
“There are gifts in all of our lives — if you’re looking for them, you’ll find them,” says Murray.