Asking universal teen questions

One might think that high school students in one of America’s richest cities are far different from the “unteachable” 150 whom Erin Gruwell came across in her former classrooms at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach.

But look deeper, and you’ll find a connection. That became clearer when Gruwell, the teacher whose story inspired the movie “Freedom Writers,” began her simple exercise of asking questions while speaking Friday to the students at Sage Hill School in Newport Coast.

Gruwell was invited by three Sage Hill juniors — Colton Gyulay, Jared Hoffman and Mark Loper — who developed an iPhone app, Microgifts.

The application is designed to “simplify giving,” Colton said.

Gruwell partnered with the students’ charity, which can use the app to make a donation to her nonprofit, Freedom Writers Foundation.

The application can be downloaded to an iPhone, an iPod Touch or an iPad. In a few clicks, a donation can be made. Apple notified the students that it accepted their application Wednesday. Microgifts debuted a day later.

Gruwell, 40, began her exercise by asking simple questions, like how many of the students liked Miley Cyrus? They all stood up.

But then the questions got personal when she asked, “How many of you know someone who’s addicted to alcohol?

“How many of you know someone who tried or contemplated suicide?

“How many of you know someone who’s poor?”

Almost every one of the 440 students who attended stood.

The point of Gruwell’s exercise was to remind Sage Hill’s students that they, like the students at Wilson, are not alone. And that they, too, can make a positive change in their lives and in the lives of others.

“If a rose is a rose is a rose, a teenager is a teenager is a teenager,” Gruwell told the students.

Gruwell shared with the Sage Hill audience how in the 1990s she got Wilson students, many of whom were from disadvantaged backgrounds in the classes to which she was assigned, to realize that they can turn their lives around. At that time, Gruwell, a UC Irvine graduate, commuted to Wilson from Newport Beach; she has since moved to Long Beach.

By sharing the stories of her former students, she wanted Sage Hill’s students to know that no matter the obstacle, there’s a way to overcome it, and emerge stronger. Before ending her speech, Gruwell invited the students to bring their parents along to a Friday night screening of the documentary “Voices Unbound: The Story of the Freedom Writers,” which tracks the students to show how their lives have changed since high school.

But before the film started she issued a warning: Bring tissues.