On May 19, 2010 the high school AVID Coordinators gave their annual report to the Board of Education on the achievements of their graduating seniors and even brought along a couple of students to share their success stories.

The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program targets students in the academic middle who have the desire to go to college and the willingness to work hard. AVID places academically average students in advanced classes and provides them with an elective class that prepares them to succeed in rigorous curricula, enter mainstream activities in school, and increase their opportunities to enroll in four-year colleges. The AVID program levels the playing field for minority, rural, low-income, and other students without college-going tradition in their families.

Julie Orrison, AVID Coordinator at A.B. Miller School, said that her school has 39 AVID graduates this year. Thirty-five percent have been accepted to UC schools, 89% to CSU schools, and 24% to private and/or out of state colleges. AVID students at Miller surpass their peers in GPA (a solid 5 points higher than their non-AVID peers at Miller), California High School Exit Exam (CaHSEE) pass rate, graduation rate (100%), and they have better attendance.

A.B. Miller senior Demi Becker credits her three years in the AVID program with helping her get accepted into UC Riverside. “Without AVID, I don’t know where I would be,” said Amy. “I probably wouldn’t even be in a college. It pushed me to go for my goal and make my dreams come true.” Amy plans to pursue a career in film or possibly teaching.

Fontana High School’s AVID Coordinator Jo Shelly King said that Fohi has 93 graduating AVID seniors; the largest graduating class ever in San Bernardino County. “Next year,” she said, “we are going to be even bigger.” Ninety percent of AVID seniors at Fohi have received 200 acceptances to colleges and universities. Fohi continues to increase the number of AVID students taking Advanced Placement courses. AVID students’ GPA remain remarkably higher than their non-AVID peers.

Alexandria Donata, a senior at Fohi, said that her AVID Coordinator helped her pick her classes and take the courses she needs for college. “They’ve really helped me out so much,” said Alexandria. This fall she will be attending Cal State San Bernardino and plans to study criminology with an emphasis in forensic science.

Dave Ungerer, the AVID Coordinator at Kaiser High School, said his school has 73 graduating AVID seniors. “Our second largest class,” said Dave. “We have seven AP Scholars and we are probably going to have more because many of our seniors took AP tests the last few weeks,” he continued. Twenty-nine of Kaiser AVID seniors have been accepted to UC schools, 53 have been accepted to CSU schools, and 14 have been accepted to out-of-state colleges. “We have our first student going to Penn, an Ivy League school,” said Mr. Ungerer. “Brenda Duenas will be attending Cornell. We have three seniors going to Berkley and four to UCLA and we’ve been working forever and ever and we finally got an AVID senior into Stanford.”

Kaiser senior Gladys Castro said she wasn’t always sure she even wanted to go to college. “AVID really influenced me to keep pushing forward,” she said. “Without all the preparation that Mr. Ungerer and the AVID program has given me, I don’t think I would be going to Berkley,” said Gladys. She will be pursuing a double major in political science and journalism.

Summit High School’s AVID Coordinator, Steve Jennings, said Summit has 45 graduating AVID seniors. One hundred percent were accepted to a four year university. The 45 seniors have received 194 university acceptances: 62 California State University acceptances, 26 University of California acceptances, 39 private California colleges, and 22 out-of-state schools.

Summit senior Christy Mato credits AVID for helping her navigate the college system. “I didn’t know a lot of things about financial aid,” she said. Thanks to the assistance she received from her AVID teachers, like Mr. Jennings, she will be attending Cal State San Bernardino, majoring in art and plans to become an art teacher.

Kelly Willis, Coordinator of Secondary Curriculum, announced that when Jurupa Hills High School opens this August, they will have an AVID program. Kelly Navas will be the AVID Coordinator at Jurupa Hills. They will start with a couple of sections for freshman and sophomores and will build from there.

Exciting things are happening with the AVID programs in FUSD middle schools. Alder has been Certified; Almeria is holding Family Night to promote positive student/parent communication; Truman has an 8th Grade Mentoring Program for 6th Grade Students and the program will be expanding in 2010-11; and Ruble will be expanding their program next year to two 8th grade sections and two 7th grade sections.

A.B. Miller High School AVID Seniors

Fontana High School AVID Seniors

Kaiser High School AVID Seniors

Summit High School AVID Seniors

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A.B. Miller High School AVID Seniors

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