Freedom Writer To Speak at Northern Colorado Convocation

Maria Reyes

UNC’s Fall Convocation, to be held on August 22, will feature a presentation by Maria Reyes, one of the Freedom Writers.  Like many of her classmates at Woodrow Wilson High School in 1994, Ms. Reyes had been labeled unteachable, and seemed destined to be another story of failure.  By age 7 she was a gang member—the third generation of her family to pursue this path in life—and many of her teen years were spent in juvenile detention centers.

Inspired by the story of Anne Frank, which had been assigned by her teacher, Erin Gruwell, Ms. Reyes and her classmates encountered the Holocaust for the first time. They began to follow Anne Frank’s example and share their own stories through anonymous journals, which allowed them to question their own views of the world, other people and themselves. These diaries became the phenomenal book The Freedom Writers Diary, and not only changed the lives of the students in the class, but began to change the world around them.

Ms. Reyes went on to earn her bachelor's degree from California State University, Long Beach in 2005. She now travels widely, speaking to teachers, at-risk youth and community leaders to share her experiences and to spread a message of hope and possibility.