PCC’s “Freedom Writers” Triumph in Trip to Washington, D.C.

What started as a dream last summer for Pasadena City College’s own version of the “Freedom Writers” will turn into reality in just a few weeks.

Dustin Hanvey, an associate professor in PCC’s English Department, and 19 of his students will be traveling across the country to Washington, D.C. on March 8. The weeklong trip – funded entirely by the students themselves – will serve as a culmination of activities in Hanvey’s two-semester Stretch Accelerated Composition (STACC) course, which he modeled after author Erin Gruwell’s best-selling book “The Freedom Writers Diary.”

Published in 1999, “The Freedom Writers Diary” chronicles Gruwell’s experience as an English teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif. Through a series of in-class activities and field trips, Gruwell progressively changes the lives of her students, many of whom were deemed “at-risk” or “un-teachable” because of their troubled backgrounds.

The students documented their classroom experience in a series of diaries, even dubbing themselves “Freedom Writers” in homage to the early 1960s civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”

Hanvey incorporated Gruwell’s non-fiction book into his own course curriculum and mirrored some of her in-class methodology and out-of-class activities, which included writing a diary and taking a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. The students also wrote self-reflective essays and letters to politicians as part of the composition exercises.

“The students responded very well to the book,” said Hanvey, who has been teaching at PCC since 2004. “Many of them were able to relate to it because they came from similar backgrounds.”

Roxanne Jodi Ochoa, a freshman kinesiology major who will be going on the trip to D.C., said “Freedom Writers” had an immediate impact on her life. A native of the Philippines, she moved to the United States three years ago and is bilingual.

“One of the diary entries in the book that really got to me was a student who had a learning disorder. He was laughed at and bullied. I’ve experienced being bullied as well because of my accent, so it made me realize that a lot of people go through that in their lives.

“I’ve known the feeling of people bringing you down because you’re made to feel like you’re not like anyone else,” she added. “But by writing about it and expressing myself, it’s given me confidence. One of my essays was about being bilingual and how it can be an advantage, and not a hindrance.”

Krystal Vega, a forensic biology major, will be taking the trip as well. “The book helped me relate to real-life people,” she said. “A lot of students in the class have different barriers in life, but they’re able to overcome that.”

As detailed in the book, Gruwell’s “Freedom Writers” and her methodology eventually gained national attention. She leveraged the exposure by taking them across the country to places where they had never thought of going. One of their stops included Washington, D.C., where the group presented their ideas on education to the United States Secretary of Education.

Inspired by Gruwell, Hanvey hatched the idea of going to the nation’s capital last year just before the fall semester start of his STACC course. One of the stipulations of the trip, however, was that the students would have to find a way to pay for the flight themselves.

“It was a small dream from last summer,” he said. “But it’s gotten this far, and I’m thrilled that many of them are able to go. Some of them have never even left California.”

Many of his students embraced the idea of traveling to D.C. and responded to the challenge by creating a series of fundraisers over the course of the fall and spring semesters. Local restaurants got involved, and the students were even able to develop a page on the gofundme.com website.

“I’ve never been to Washington D.C.,” Ochoa said. “The students in the book were really excited about the trip, and I wanted to have the same feeling, too.”

This will be Hanvey’s first trip to D.C. as well. “I expect the trip to be something that’s illuminating and life-changing. We’ll be opening our eyes to history and politics.”

While there, the group plans on visiting museums and historical landmarks. They were also able to book a tour of the White House. “They sent background checks on everyone – it was interesting experience,” said Vega, the primary organizer of the fundraisers.

But for most of the students, Hanvey said, the trip will have much deeper meaning beyond politics and history. “It’s about having an idea and seeing it come to fruition. They dreamed big and now they can follow it to the end.”