但更有意义的是格鲁韦尔在伍德罗•威尔逊高中（Woodrow Wilson High School）采用新颖的教学方法以后所发生的情况。她教的第一班学生中的很多人步入了职业生涯。其中一个学生现在是洛杉矶的建筑师；另一个学生正在经营社交媒体公司。有数名学生当了护士或军官。（点击连接，认识在墨西哥采用新颖教学方法的另一位老师）

The first day teaching, Farias said, “when I got to that classroom, I saw myself. I saw Tiffony. I saw Maria. I saw the Freedom Writers.”

For her part, Tiffony Jacobs, the Tiffony whom Farias remembers, admits that her first encounters with Gruwell 20 years ago did not go well. “She made me sit right up front and always called on me,” Jacobs said. “I knew I would have to work.”

Today Jacobs is grateful. “I’m college educated. I have structure in my life. I refuse to be treated disrespectfully, and I respect myself,” she said.

Jacobs now works full time for the Freedom Writers Foundation, which Gruwell founded while her first students were pursuing college degrees and careers. The foundation trains teachers of at-risk teenagers how to raise academic performance and help students overcome adverse circumstances.

With the help of Farias and other former students, the foundation has trained 400 teachers and reached 450,000 students with a curriculum emphasizing tolerance and inclusion. The foundation also awards college scholarships to secondary school graduates who have overcome adversity.

In recent years, Gruwell has traveled to Taiwan, the Netherlands and Scotland to help teachers. This year she’ll travel to Israel. “There is nothing that can stop this woman,” Jacobs said. “She is like a train that just goes full steam ahead.”

Gruwell said she is motivated by teachers who work with disadvantaged students. “Teachers are superheroes,” she said. “These are people who believe in social justice, who fight for the underdog.”