Liz Murray’s life is far removed from the homelessness and loving but drug- and alcohol-addicted parents that were the touchstones of her youth. 

Today, having earned academic degrees from Harvard and Columbia University, created a youth mentoring nonprofit, and been the subject of a Lifetime movie, Murray says that her survival story would have been impossible were it not for the “successful intervention of New York City Public Schools and the support of principals, teachers, and school board members.”

The keynote speaker at Monday’s closing General Session at NSBA’s Annual Conference in San Diego, Murray called her address “a love letter from me to you.”

Because of her parents’ addictions, mental illness, and poverty, and the violence and crime in her neighborhood, she grew up with “a strong and profound feeling of wanting to give up on myself.” The sense of isolation that she felt, of being “stuck” in her own life, was daunting and painful.

That pain is universal for many who are “fighting tooth and nail to try to make it,” Murray said.

At age 15, after Murray’s mother died and her father left the family, she and her sister were left to their own devices, living on the streets, riding the subway all night, and eating from dumpsters. School was rarely a part of the equation. “I didn’t have faith in the system,” she said.

Although people like Murray, who successfully pull themselves out of dire life situations, are often praised as “bootstrappers,” she reminded conference attendees that “no one gets ahead without the help of others.”

For her, those others included Arthur, a family friend who constantly challenged and encouraged Murray, along with the school leaders and the school community that embraced her when she finally showed up on their doorstep.

Arthur’s words that she was “going to inspire people. You’re going to touch people,” stayed with Murray.

Following the death of both her mother and Arthur, “a gift came out of the terrible situation.” It was the realization that “there will always be some kind of problem” in your life. "The question is what are you going to do about that problem," Murray said.

“I realized I could never do it alone, but I had to take the next step. I wanted to go to school.”

At her new school, a dedicated teacher was sensitive to her fragile situation but also “treated me as though I was accountable,” Murray recalled.

That accountability helped her complete four years of high school in two, earn a full college scholarship, and gain admission to Harvard University, all while camping out in New York City parks and subway stations.

Now, a wife and mother of three with a master’s degree––and that Lifetime movie, “Homeless to Harvard,” and a memoir, Breaking Night––Murray is also the co-founder of and executive director of The Arthur Project, a mentoring program that works intensively with at-risk middle school students.

“Your past doesn’t have to determine your future,” Murray said Monday. "While I’m responsible for my life, I needed my community, teachers, and school” to turn that life around.

That need is shared by many others, she added, telling conference attendees that “by standing in service, you can transform lives.”