Ms. Murray will be visiting Delaware on Thursday, May 10th for the 2012 Padua Academy Dinner in Honor of Women’s at the Chase Center in Wilmington.  She will be honored for her own achievements and the investment she is making into the lives of women.  Tickets are still available for purchase.

Recently, the Padua community was shown the inspirational movie, “Homeless to Harvard: the Liz Murray story.”  Ms. Murray was once homeless and helpless teen who defied the odds to attend Harvard and became an inspirational speaker.

Ms. Murray was born on September 23, 1980 to poor and drug addicted parents who later each contracted HIV. After her mother died of AIDS, her father moved to a homeless shelter and Ms. Murray became homeless at the age of 15. She was determined to be successful in life. Ms. Murray fought through many difficult obstacles to get where she is today. When she began attending the Humanities Preparatory Academy, Ms. Murray’s life started to change for the better. She received a New York Times scholarship for needy students and was later accepted into Harvard University. Ms. Murray was unable to cope with the people she met at Harvard so she finished college at Sarah Lawrence College.

Eventually she returned to Harvard in 2006 and graduated later in June 2009. In August 2009, she started to attend Harvard summer school for graduate courses. She decided to attend there because she wanted to earn a doctorate in clinical psychology to help counsel people. She has a book called Breaking Night.  The story of Ms. Murray is very moving and should make it clear that no matter what, anything is possible.