Innovation Blog

From Homeless to Harvard: The Story of Liz Murray

By Shlomo Maital

   

 

from the movie: From Homeless to Harvard

 Innovation, ultimately, is about resilience and the ability to overcome huge obstacles. Perhaps the remarkable story of Liz Murray, as told on BBC’s World Service Outlook program, can help inspire us.  Few have overcome obstacles as great.  What are the odds that a homeless virtually-orphaned child, whose parents were both addicts from the time she was three, could graduate from Harvard University and become a top motivational speaker?

   Liz’s parents were both severe drug addicts, injecting heroine into their veins, often in Liz’s presence, from the time she was three years old.  She recounts, in her book, that they were always loving parents, despite the addiction.   But they lived in filth and hunger, because the monthly welfare checks were spent on drugs, leaving her and her sister to scrounge meals from neighbors. She recounts,  “We would do things like eat ice cubes, or chapstick or toothpaste. We would knock on our neighbours’ doors.  But everyone in the neighbourhood was living off government cheques.”  Her father was an ABD (all but doctorate) in psychology and read voluminously, using New York City’s famous Public Library (often under pseudonyms, because he failed to return books); Liz, thus, read widely too.

   Liz’s mother was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1990, and she died in 1996.  With a mother in and out of hospital, and a father who was still heavily addicted to heroin, Liz eventually ended up on the streets, homeless. 

    Despite being homeless, she went from high school to high school, seeking admission.  After many rejections, she was somehow accepted to an  “alternative” high school – Humanities Preparatory Academy in Chelsea, Manhattan.  She did homework at friends, in school, even while living on the streets.  She had an inspiring teacher, who chose her as one of 10 students to go on a field trip to Boston  — her first time outside of NYC.  They visited Harvard University. Liz recounts she could not take her eyes off the Harvard students, clean, neatly dressed, wearing Harvard sweatshirts. 

   Back at high school, she began looking for college scholarships.  She spotted, in The New York Times, a full $12,000/year scholarship for four years.  Some 21,000 students applied.  She made it into the last 20.  In her final interview, she was asked about her ability to overcome obstacles – and told her story about living on the streets, homeless, while attending high school. She got the scholarship to Harvard.

       According to her account on the BBC,  “while she was at Harvard, she began public speaking – helping people who, like herself, had an almost impossible mountain to climb to succeed in life.”

       “Now, today,  she makes her living as a motivational speaker and founder of Manifest Living, a company which offers workshops for people wanting to change their circumstances.”

     Liz’s father also contracted AIDS, and she returned to care for him.  “Just before he passed away, he wrote me this card,” she recounts.  “He wrote in the card, ‘Lizzy, I left my dreams behind a long time ago. But I know now they’re safe with you. Now we’re a family again.'” 

     The next time you encounter an obstacle, big or small, to achieving your goals, remember Liz Murray.   With determination and courage, the human spirit is capable of anything.