Monday, August 10, 2020 — 12:00 pm

Welcome Erin Gruwell – Teacher of Hope
Fresh from her Los Angeles Emmy Win for The Freedom Writers: Stories from the Heart Documentary

As an idealistic high school teacher in racially divided Long Beach of 1994, facing a room full of un-teachable, at-risk and ethnically diverse students, Erin Gruwell made a lot of people believe in miracles. “The Freedom Writers”, the name the teens took collectively as they individually realized they could achieve the impossible, is the compilation of all their startling stories. Now grown, with families of their own, they help Gruwell tell the story all over again of how they picked up pens instead of guns…from a success perspective.

Gruwell’s unconventional methods continue to make a difference internationally through her Freedom Writers Foundation. Her empowering story was made into the Freedom Writers film with Hilary Swank as Erin. She won a Los Angeles Area Emmy just last month for a PBS documentary. And this month, she tells her personal story of courage and combatting intolerance to us! It just might change your own life.