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Original Freedom Writer and Acclaimed Speaker Manny Scott to Deliver Keynote for Convocation 2019

Manny Scott

An original Freedom Writer whose story is told in part in the 2007 hit movie, Freedom Writers, Manny Scott will welcome Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District teachers, administrators and support staff to a new year with relevant, riveting, and compelling messages that inspire go-forward determination.  Manny Scott, who has energized over a million leaders, educators, volunteers, and students worldwide with his authentic, inspiring messages of hope, is the keynote speaker for Convocation 2019.  

By age 16, Manny’s story was almost over:

His father was incarcerated, he missed 60-90 days of school annually from 4th to 9th grade, he dropped out of school at age 14, he lived in 26 places by age 16, and his best friend was brutally murdered. Sensing that the end of his life was near, Manny sat down on a park bench, and considered how he would make others feel the depth of despair and anger roiling in his soul. He says, “When I look back, I now see that I was heading down a path that would have destroyed me.”

Then, a man—a complete stranger—took a risk, and sat down beside Manny. That man connected with him, encouraged him, and inspired him to write a different story—to create a new life.

That day, on a park bench, Manny Scott turned the page. He returned to school with a new attitude and purpose, and ended up in the back of Erin Gruwell’s English class—a group now known worldwide as the Freedom Writers, portrayed in the 2007 hit MTV movie.

In his journal, Manny began writing—and dreaming about—new, more fulfilling chapters in his life—chapters filled with healing, hope, perseverance, and possibility.

Through very hard work, and with the help of others, Manny has achieved many of those journaled dreams. In 2007, he founded Ink International, Inc, an educational consulting team that is preventing thousands of suicides, raising student achievement, and improving teacher effectiveness. Through Ink’s online Professional Speaker Academy, Manny is training people how to survive and thrive as professional speakers.

He is the author of two books: Your Next Chapter, a book that shows people, step-by-step, how to create the life of their dreams; and, How to R.E.A.C.H. Youth Today, a book that shares several proven practices and principles that engage, equip, and empower people everywhere to reach people who seem unreachable.

He is now happily married, a doting father of three, a successful entrepreneur, a Ph.D. student, and one of the nation’s most sought after speakers.

“I do not speak to impress people,” Manny explains, “but to impress upon them some invaluable lessons that could literally change the quality of their lives forever. When I speak, I try to make sure audiences are crystal clear about how to ‘turn the page’—to transform their lives. Whether I’m in Houston or Hong Kong, Kansas City or Cairo, Los Angeles or London, I carry a torchlight of inspiration into the recesses of dormant potential, and show the gems that are sparkling there.” Manny Scott is helping people change their lives all over the globe.


Through Ink, Manny and his team are helping people all over the world to turn the page.