Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) is an international program designed to meet the needs of students who want to succeed in higher education, AVID coordinator and social studies teacher Liza Gable-Ferguson said in an interview. AVID provides educational support in a variety of ways, Gable-Ferguson said.
AVID guides students on the path to college, providing them with an environment that helps them learn lessons from other classes and creating a support network of fellow students that help each other in their educational journey, Gable-Ferguson said.
“AVID is a program that helps motivated, good students, but their parents didn’t go to college,” AVID teacher Frank Castro said in an interview. “We’re building them up to their senior year, so when they apply to universities, they have everything they need,” Castro added.
There are two ways students get into AVID, Gable-Ferguson said. One way is that they started AVID in middle school, and then continued to high school, which most do, Gable-Ferguson added.
“We also take data from the two middle schools and aggregate that based upon parent education level and GPA and a couple of other factors, including income,” Gable-Ferguson said. “Then we use that to create a list where we will interview and recruit.”
AVID’s weekly schedule consists of two days of curriculum, two days of tutorials, and team bonding on Fridays, AVID teacher Lisa Topping said in an interview.
“We might be reading articles, analyzing, or having a close-up,” Topping said. “A Socratic seminar on something we read, get input that helps you in life, how to deal with stress, how to analyze a speech, things like that.”
Twice a week, AVID has tutorials where outside tutors come in and answer questions they have from their classes, Topping said.
“They also help each other in that situation,” Topping said. “So they help each other like a study group kind of thing, mostly in areas such as math, English, and science.”
The AVID teachers have different opinions on what the program’s biggest benefit is. According to Gable-Ferguson, the biggest benefit is the community itself.
“We call it a family,” Gable-Ferguson said. “The other thing that I think they get out of it is support to go in a direction that they might not have gone in otherwise.”
Topping said that it’s similar to having an extra counselor because they have someone showing them the system of schools and the admission process for colleges.
“They learn about life in college, financial aid, a lot of stuff that most students don’t get,” Topping said. “They get to know more about what the choices are after high school.”
Similarly, Castro said the big payoff comes when seniors are applying for college.
“We help them navigate that whole process, and we also help them with choosing which school they want to go to, what their major is going to be, and also helping them with financial aid,” Castro said. “I love helping those kids,” he added.
AVID student and senior Simon Difuntorum said he’s headed to San Jose State University (SJSU) to study industrial engineering. AVID put him in a mindset where he could focus on one thing only, Difuntorum said in an interview.
“I could just see the reason why I should be in SJSU and not other colleges,” Difuntorum said. “AVID made me aware of costs and the different lifestyles I would experience if I didn’t stay at home while attending SJSU,” Difuntorum added.
AVID has benefited him outside of school, Difuntorum said.
“I learned skills about being a leader and how I can actually stand up by myself and take the first step instead of waiting for someone else to take the first step,” Difuntorum said.
