Liz Murray

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Liz Murray (born September 23, 1980 in The Bronx, New York) is an American whose success story has spread around the world. She is known for being the homeless girl wandering the slums of New York, who eventually turns her life around once she realizes she is not doomed to experience life on the streets. Determined and confident, she strives for and succeeds at becoming a student at Harvard University. Her story was told in an Emmy-nominated Lifetime TV movie Homeless to Harvard - The Liz Murray Story. Her memoir, Breaking Night, was recently published. Murray is currently an inspirational speaker, represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau.

[edit] Her story

Murray was the child of poor, drug-addicted, HIV-infected parents. She became homeless at age 15 when her mother died and her father moved to a shelter. Her life turned around when she began attending the Humanities Preparatory School in Greenwich Village. Though she started high school at a late age and remained without a stable home, she was able to graduate in two years. She was awarded a New York Times scholarship for needy students and accepted into Harvard for the fall of 2000.

Murray's life was the subject of the 2003 made-for-TV movie Homeless to Harvard - The Liz Murray Story, which aired on Lifetime. Thora Birch played Liz. Murray had a part in the movie, playing a social worker and was also a co-executive producer.

Murray's memoir Breaking Night was published by Hyperion Books in 2005 (ISBN 0-7868-6891-0).

The movie credits said that "she left Harvard in 2003." Since she was a member of the class of 2004, this means that she did not graduate from Harvard.