Mentoring program co-founder to give LCCC commencement speech
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Apr. 25—NANTICOKE — The co-founder of a mentoring service targeting at-risk middle school students will give the commencement speech at Luzerne County Community College during the May 26 spring graduation ceremony.
Liz Murray helped found and serves as executive director of The Arthur Project, named after her upstairs neighbor as a child in the Bronx, former Merchant Marine Arthur Flick. Arther provided groceries for elderly neighbors, rounded volunteers to clean the local playground and helped Murray through a rough childhood with addict parents. He tutored her in the evenings and drover Murray to school.
According to thearthurproject.org website, when asked why she believes Arthur did so much to help her and other children in her neighborhood, Murray cites one of Arthur's favorite sayings: "No such thing as someone else's child. They are all our children."
According to a media release from LCCC, Murray was 15 when her mother died. Homeless, she was "living on the streets, riding the subway all night and eating from dumpsters. 'I started to grasp the value of the lessons learned while living on the streets,' Murray says. 'I knew after overcoming those daily obstacles, that next to nothing could hold me down.' "
Murray finished high schoool in two years, got a full scholarship to Harvard and graduated in 2009, and went on to earn a Master's Degree in the Psychology of Education at Columbia University.
According to the media release, Lifetime Television produced a movie about Murray's life story titled, "Homeless to Harvard," which was nominated for three Emmy Awards. She is the recipient of the White House Project's "Role Model Award" and Oprah Winfrey's first-ever "Chutzpah Award." Her memoir, Breaking Night, is a New York Times best seller and an international bestseller published in twelve countries, in eight languages.
The commencement ceremony begins at 6 p.m at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish
