Opening General Session

Thursday, November 15
6:00-7:00 p.m.
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
Grand Ballroom, Ballroom Level

Join your colleagues for an evening of fun and entertainment to kick off ASHA in Boston. The program will feature welcoming remarks from ASHA 2007 President Noma Anderson as well as her presidential address highlighting the year. Convention Co-Chairs Patricia A. Prelock and Robert Burkard will also be on hand to welcome everyone.

The evening will celebrate the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association's (NSSLHA) 35th Anniversary with a special salute to students—our future!

Erin Gruwell, known as a revolutionary educator and catalyst for social change, will speak about her personal experience as a young teacher to a group of students written off by the education system and deemed "unteachable." Her story was made into a movie last year starring Hillary Swank, titled "Freedom Writers." Gruwell fostered an educational environment that valued and promoted diversity, transforming the lives of the teenagers living in a racially divided urban community that had already been hardened by first-hand exposure to gang violence, juvenile detention, and drugs. With her support and encouragement, her students shattered stereotypes to become critical thinkers, aspiring college students, and citizens for change. They dubbed themselves the "Freedom Writers"— an homage to "The Freedom Riders" of the civil rights movement—and published The Freedom Writers Diary—How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. so you can get a good seat for the Opening General Session.