freedomwriters2

freedomwriters2

Photo courtesy of Freedom Writers Foundation

If inspiration had an address in Long Beach it would be 3335 E. Ocean Avenue, home to the offices of the Freedom Writers Foundation. As you walk into the house-turned-office space, you are bombarded by a feeling of good. The hairs on your arms stand up. Inspiration for a better community and world at large thrives within these walls. The FWF is dedicated to creating change, a place of absolute positive influence; it can’t help but rub off on you.

Erin Gruwell, Long Beach’s most famous teacher is the founder of the FWF. She started off in 1994 as a teacher at Wilson High School and delved into teaching with a contagious passion that changed the lives of her students. One year, the class read Anne Frank’s diary and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo. They were inspired to write their own stories of growing up in their turbulent homes and neighborhoods. The Freedom Writers Diary became a bestselling book and an acclaimed movie with Hillary Swank followed suit to help spread the message—how writing can change you, and those around you.

Many of the employees of the FWF are past Freedom Writers themselves. Sue Ellen Alpizar was one of Gruwell’s original students. She was homeless and had no plans of graduating high school when she joined Gruwell’s classroom. She was told for the first time in her life whatever she wanted to do, she could do it, it just took work. Alpizar went on to get a degree from Cal State Long Beach and now shares an office with Gruwell. 

The Anne Frank Center in Amsterdam is now recommending students and teachers read The Freedom Writers Diary prior to Frank’s diary for its modern context. Which is truly spectacular considering that Anne Frank was the vehicle for Gruwell’s students to learn to read and write. “We just pinch ourselves everyday,” says Gruwell.

freedomwritersgruwellThe story of the Freedom Writers continues and grows in strength and numbers. The offices hold Freedom Writers’ family fun days, where the original students can get together to celebrate new life and to act as an evolving support group for each other. The FWF building is very much a home.  

Getting a chance to sit down with the globetrotting teacher turned inspirational speaker and ask her some questions changed me too. After our conversation I found myself asking what I could do to help the non-profit FWF. Volunteers, interns and of course donations in any size can help contribute to their cause.

What is happening with the Freedom Writers Foundation now?

Erin Gruwell: One of the most exciting things is that we are approaching our 20th anniversary in the fall of 2014. This next year we are getting ready to release our documentary that we’ve been working on since the first day of class, so it will be a 20-year project. We are working on a new and improved teachers guide. We have been training teachers from all over the globe. We have now trained 350 teachers who we give scholarships to come to Long Beach from as far away as Rwanda and India and New Zealand and even the director of the Anne Frank center in the Netherlands. One of things we are most proud of is that we have been giving away scholarships to Long Beach recipients, we’ve given away almost 75 scholarships in the last few years to students who are the first in their family to graduate from high school and first in their families to go to college. So we are paying it forward.

Catalyst for change seems to be the FWF mantra. What change do you hope to bring about?

One of the things that we’ve looked at, is how do you engage people who are not motivated for education, how do you enlighten them academically, to make them realize that education is a way to transform yourself, and then most importantly how do you empower people to take the next step. In our teacher’s guide and training we look at those three steps, how do you engage, enlighten and empower. Whether it’s the teachers that follow steps or whether it’s kids. So that’s really kind of our mantra is making people become change agents through education. We learned a lot from holocaust survivors, who taught us not to stand idly by… My first year of teaching also corresponded with the genocide in Rwanda. We are working right now specifically with a village in Rwanda that has orphans from that genocide. So it’s looking at how do we, as educated people not stand idly by during a Cambodian genocide, or a Bosnian genocide, a Rwanda genocide, or Darfur or Syria. Education is a way that those things will stop. I think for us, we started very humbly learning about the holocaust, and we were saddened that genocide didn’t stop with the holocaust. They are still continuing. So, I think that catalyst for change is really about making a change not just in Long Beach, but globally.

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How do handle the stress with your public speaking, you’ve done Ted talks, you’ve been on Oprah, what do you do to prepare, do you have any tricks to keep calm?

I’m nervous every single time and that never goes away because I think that the stakes are so high. I really try to personalize the message for whomever I’m speaking to. It’s ranged from country to country. We always try to give a message of hope and possibility, and that hopefully our story is just a mirror of kids in any community. We’ve been very fortunate that the book has been translated in about 12 languages. So to travel the globe and give speeches internationally is surreal… I’m always terrified. It’s never the same and I usually half way through a speech cry, and I think feeling that emotion is really important, to have that passion, and to make it relevant to the audience. I do a lot of research on who I’m speaking to why do they want me there. Making every speech very unique.

Is there a person that you have been most star-struck by?

Yes. Well, I wouldn’t say star-struck, I would say in awe of Congressman John Lewis, who is a Freedom Rider from the 60s and now is a congressman from Atlanta, Georgia. He is the reason that we took that name (Freedom Writers). He’s been arrested 44 times for fighting for civil rights. Most recently he was arrested when they were making a difference for Sudan. So meeting someone of his stature that is willing to get arrested, willing to put his life on the line, willing to fight, to sit on that bus.

Who is the teacher that left the biggest impact on you?

What I love about teaching is that it doesn’t always have to be someone in a classroom. Teachers are people who give us these great life experiences. For me, I would say that Miep Gies, the woman who saved Anne Frank, was my greatest teacher because she was so humble and she was an ordinary person who did an extraordinary thing. So, when she came and met my students, I felt like a student of hers. I mean, she wouldn’t consider herself a classic teacher, but the life lessons that she instilled in all of us were enormous.

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What words of advice do you have for beginning teachers?

I would say the most important thing is to be flexible, to be open-minded and to teach to a student and not to a test. I know we live in an era that’s data driven and test-driven and I think we really give a disservice to our profession if we teach to a test. There is no one-size fits all to any student. For me I had 150 kids, different shapes and sizes who learned differently and I had to figure out the niche for every kid. It’s exhausting. It’s overwhelming. But, all these years later because each student was treated as an individual and not as a test score, I think that we’ve been able to reap the benefits.

Where do you continue to draw your strength and inspiration from?

From my original students. To be able to see the same students that I was blessed to have 19 years ago. We’re all getting a little older, a little bit grayer… I didn’t have that experience. I still have a smattering of friends from my high school but not this organized cohesive organized group. I think it’s pretty remarkable that this group of students who were virtual strangers and/or enemies to be in each other’s lives for this long and to be so positive and to be so loving is pretty remarkable. 

For more information on the Freedom Writers Foundation, visit freedomwritersfoundation.org

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