AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. AVID  is replaced as an elective if you decide to take it. The AVID program focuses on  college preparation, academic instruction, motivational activities and tutorial support.

“I have been in AVID since middle school. AVID helped me so much when I first came into highschool because it taught me how to prep essays, good note taking skills, and it made my freshman year a whole lot easier. To me AVID is a family that keeps on growing,” said junior Sephaniet Beyene.

The objective is to help students become leaders around the school and have leadership success in college. To do that, AVID encourages building strong student/teacher relationships, creating positive peer groups, and developing a sense of hope for personal achievement gained through hard work and determination.

“I began teaching AVID in the 2007/2008 school year. I took over a class their sophomore year. When I first began teaching AVID, I didn’t 100% know what all would be involved in being an AVID teacher. I knew that it was a college prep program and it was there to support students in getting to college,” said Gerry McCullar the Social Studies, Boys Lacrosse Coach, and AVID 11 teacher.

An AVID teacher has to go through the (TPI) Teacher Preparation Initiative program before they enter a classroom and teach the AVID curriculum. The TPI process starts by training the faculty members the basic AVID methods through a variety of selected development experiences.

“The idea of helping students to be ready for the next step in their lives is why I became a teacher in the first place. The purpose of AVID is to push middle student push themselves into advanced classes by giving additional support by organization and tutorials,”said McCullar.

Teacher candidates are expected to implement the strategies within the supportive framework of their classes and during their field experiences/student teaching. Then the courses are advanced, and teacher candidates get important strategy instructions within the WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, & Reading) framework.

“A variety of AVID teaching strategies have made me a better teacher over all. AVID is not an easy A , and the short term rewards are not great, but in the long term it pays off very well. I hope that my AVID students enter into the world with a number of skills ranging from critical thinking, good organizational skills, the ability to communicate well with others too,” said McCullar.