Homeless to Harvard

1. Someone who had the most impact on Liz in a negative way would be her parents. They chose drugs and alcohol over making sure her and her sister had a healthy home environment. Her principal at the school she went to when she was 17 and decided to better her life had a positive effect on her and believed that she could succeed, and that she did. 2. Liz didn’t have many opportunities growing up. She spent most of her childhood taking care of her parents or in an orphanage. Liz learned from the life her parents lead and decided to become more successful and strive to be better. 3. I think that if Liz’s mother hadn’t relapsed or dies than Liz wouldn’t have been more apt to make a better life for herself. 4. Liz’s family lived in poverty. Her family’s largest contributing factor to her mother and fathers behavior was their addiction to substances and the fact that you can’t get a well-paying job without drug testing. They did not have the skills or education to get better jobs. Poor parenting and substance abuse only family life made chances for success worse. 5. If I was lizs social worker I would have helped her develop a plan to get through the rest of her time in the orphanage and get her started on a better track so that she would have more options to better her life when she turned 18. 6. Liz and Chris took, somewhat, the roles of sisters. They both took care of each other when they had no one else and were there for each other when they were homeless and had to sleep on the streets and beg strangers for every penny they could