Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), a program that helps students succeed in a challenging honors schedule, is now accepting applications for incoming freshmen.

“It was worth taking out an elective. I feel lucky to be in this class,” sophomore and second year AVID student Marcelo Martinez said.

To be accepted into the AVID program as an incoming freshman, students must be in at least one honors class as well as ranging in the 40-80 percentile based upon standardized test scores.
Selection requirements also include having a genuine interest and individual determination are also essential qualities.

“Freshman focus on AVID strategies such as organization and note taking, sophomores focus on refining those strategies that they learned the previous year, and juniors purely focus on getting ready for college essays, applications, and financial aid,” AVID adviser Britni Mitchell said.

Each grade level focuses on different skills but all classes run on the same day-to-day activity schedule.

“On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we learn tools for things like summarizing and note taking. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have tutorials, which is when tutors or teachers from our school come in to help us on particular subjects we are confused on,” sophomore and second year AVID student Mitchell Rapach said.

During the tutorology sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students work on figuring out solutions to their own struggles after receiving help from others.

The advisers believe that it is more beneficial when students are not given the answers to their problems, but instead work through it on their own.

“It is not as content-based. There is a lot of real life discussion and application, so we learn a lot about each other and they become comfortable sharing things that they normally wouldn’t,” Mitchell said.

As for next year, there are plans to increase the amount of guest speakers, hopes of adding more college admission representatives, as well as increasing the amount of college visits.

Emily Zimel | Staff Writer
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