Teacher and writer Erin Gruwell will be the guest of Cleveland Public Library’s Writers and Readers Series, Sunday, March 11, at 2:00 p.m. Gruwell has helped nearly 150 inner-city high school students who had been ignored or written off by the education system achieve their dream of going to college. Free and open to the public, the event will take place at the Main Library, Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium, E. 6th Street and Superior Avenue.

A recent college graduate, Gruwell landed her first job at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, to discover many of her students had been written off by the education system, deemed "unteachable." As teenagers living in a racially divided urban community, they were hardened by exposure to gang violence, juvenile detention, and drugs. By fostering an educational philosophy valuing and promoting diversity, Gruwell transformed her students' lives.

They dubbed themselves the "Freedom Writers," in homage to civil rights activists "The Freedom Riders," and published a book. Gruwell and her students' collective journey resulted in The Freedom Writers Diary–How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. Paramount Pictures developed this story into the current film, Freedom Writers, featuring Hilary Swank as Gruwell.

Gruwell is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where she received the Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award. She earned her Master’s Degree and teaching credentials from California State University, Long Beach, where she was honored as Distinguished Alumna by the School of Education.

Gruwell has won numerous teaching and humanitarian awards.

Gruwell serves as president of the Erin Gruwell Education Project (EGEP), a non-profit organization that promotes inclusion and provides scholarships for children in need. Gruwell and her students have appeared on television shows, including Barbara Walters’ The View, and Good Morning America, Her class has been chronicled in the Los Angeles Times, on National Public Radio. For more information, call (216) 623-2800.

Location