Erin Gruwell: Inspiring the Future

Many lament the fact that the current educational system is not always producing the caliber of employees and citizens that we will need for a healthy future. While some lament, others take action. One such person is Erin Gruwell.

As a new teacher, Ms. Gruwell was assigned to instruct a group of young people that could only loosely be defined as students. These teenagers were written off by their educational system as being “unteachable”. While others may have approached this teaching assignment with resignation, Erin attempted to inspire these children by relating historical and current events to their personal experiences.

After reading about the lives of Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovic, these students began to feel less isolated. They were inspired to write about their everyday lives from their individual perspectives. The results of these writings were the book Freedom Writers Diary – How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.

Since the first steps were taken to chronical their lives, both Ms. Gruwell and her students have had much, much more to write about and their experiences have inspired many. Erin and her students have spoken at numerous events and have shared their stories on the “Rosie O’Donnell Show”, “Primetime Live” and “The View”. Ms. G, as her students call her, has won numerous and prestigious honors including being named as the Teacher of the Year on two occassions.

And the accomplishments are not Erin’s alone. Many of her students have fulfilled their promises of continuing their education and are now college graduates. Some are furthering their education by attending graduate school. The 150 Freedom Writers continue to use their experiences to inspire and mentor students across the country.

Erin established The Tolerance Education Fund to help fund the college educations of her students and created the Gruwell Project (www.gruwellproject.org) to advance the message of hope for all our children. Ms. Gruwell is currently working on a second book and is now teaching at California State University Long Beach. The stories that Erin and her students have told are being captured both in a documentary and a feature film.

Please join HR Southwest in welcoming Erin Gruwell to our 2006 Conference on Friday, October 20th as our Keynote Speaker. We are sure that you will leave the Conference inspired and more hopeful about our future!

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