The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

Life Skills: AVID

Short for “Advancement via Individual Determination”, AVID aims to close the academic gap by teaching students the life skills necessary for success in college and beyond. Students find a second family in their AVID peers and advisor, learning to open up to more people. But AVID teaches both hard and soft skills. In addition to people skills, students also work on organization.

AVID 9: Freshman Julia Loretto

As a freshman, Julia Loretto is new and unfamiliar to high school life. AVID has helped Loretto adjust to high school.

“Getting to know more people and getting used to the class environment [has] made me comfortable,” Loretto said. “It’s helped me learn new study habits, and just gets [me] to talk to my teachers more.”

Loretto has also come across new friends in AVID, from freshmen like her to seniors.

“[I met] a lot of new people that I probably wouldn’t have known before,” Loretto said. “We’re all very tight-knit. We’re like a family.”

Photo by Ada Chen
Photo by Ada Chen

AVID 10: Sophomore Preetha Swaminathan

Sophomore Preetha Swaminathan knows that her organization skills need some work and AVID gives her an incentive to keep a tidy binder.

“The binder check’s an initiative,” Swaminathan said. “It motivates me to do something better. Because I know people are going to be looking through it, so I’m like, ‘Okay, I need to impress them.’”

On a broader scale, this motivation for self-improvement applies to other aspects of her academic life as well. AVID pushes her to do things she wouldn’t otherwise do on her own.

However, she doesn’t view AVID the way her classmates might.

“A lot of people see it as a social thing, like, ‘Oh, it’s AVID,’ Swaminathan said. “I mean it’s fun, we get to talk to people, and that’s a big part of it. There’s this whole concept of an AVID family. Personally, in my opinion, we’re very clique-y in my class… It’s changing, slowly, because Mrs. Chow is trying to take the initiative to stop that.”

Swaminathan attributes that tendency to break into smaller groups to the diversity of interests in her class. While some people are interested in math or sports, others focus on literature or art.

AVID also encourages self-discovery. She’s gained insight into her learning style and her approach to schoolwork.

“Being in AVID, it teaches you a lot about yourself, but you wouldn’t think it does,” Swaminathan said. “You learn a lot about what type of person you are.”

Photo by Ada Chen
Photo by Ada Chen

AVID 11: Junior Sepand Rouz

In his freshman year of AVID, junior Sepand Rouz started out stubborn. When Jackie Corso, his AVID advisor, gave her students an assignment that involved introducing themselves to their teachers, Rouz was adamantly against it. For three weeks, his grade had remained at a C because he had refused to complete the assignment. However, eventually he gave in, and that was the catalyst for change.

“I got rid of my mentality,” Rouz said. “Because of that, I broke the ice with my teachers, and I could ask them questions [more easily]. And my grade went up because of that. I’m not happy about that, but… it’s what I had to do. It was worth it in the long run.”

For Rouz, AVID is mostly about changing perspectives. It’s encouraged him to do things he might not have done otherwise. For example, although he has never particularly enjoyed group projects, through AVID, Rouz is slowly learning to work with — or without his groupmates. It’s taught him to rely on himself more instead of relying on his groupmates.

“You can’t rely on people to do a project for you and [expect to be] carried,” Rouz said. “Instead you have to carry them. Like you always have to have the mentality where you have to do the most work, and you’re the only one that could do all the work. And if your classmates can help you, that is good.”

Not only does AVID work to improve students’ teamwork skills, it also fosters growth in personal connections. Now, Rouz opens up more to people and tries to get to know them. Since the seating chart changes constantly, he’s had the opportunity to talk to people he might not have met otherwise.

Such personal connections have grown into an AVID family, complete with a parental figure. To Rouz — and many of the other AVID students — Corso is like a second mom, taking care of them both academically and emotionally.

Remembering his eighth-grade disorganized self, Rouz reflects on how AVID has changed him.

“If I didn’t go to AVID, I would be a really messy kid and I would use only folders,” Rouz said. “I’d probably not see the importance of a binder in any way, shape or form.”

But now, having gone through AVID’s binder checks, Rouz is easily able to procure the right papers whenever he needs them.

AVID’s lessons in organization has taught him bigger life lessons as well.

“You can’t take the easy way out of everything,” Rouz said. “You’ve got to put in some work into certain aspects of your life. Like organization. It’ll be easier in the long run if you put [in] hard work in the beginning…If you just have folders like I had in eighth grade, it’d be easy at the time, but then when you want to find things, it’d be hard. So if you put in some work, you get a lot back.”

Photo by Ada Chen
Photo by Ada Chen

AVID 12: Senior Sowmya Ramesh

After three years of AVID, senior Sowmya Ramesh is beginning her fourth with advisor Pooya Hajjarian. By now they’ve settled into a classroom environment and routine. For example, during 3rd period every Friday, AVID students take time off their busy schedules to write pick-me-up notes to all their classmates. And every year, AVID students participate in Secret Santa gift exchanges. They even go so far as to get a Christmas tree for the holiday spirit.

“AVID is really about building a community with your fellow avid classmates,” Ramesh said. “They try to help you through hiccups like grades, family problems, or student-to-student issues.”

Not only does AVID prepare students for academic success — like writing college apps or finding scholarships — it also trains students for financial independence by educating them about using credit cards, debit cards and loans. These skills go beyond college and are useful for daily lives. In addition, AVID also pushes its students to improve people skills.

“You have to work together with people that you may not necessarily like,” Ramesh said. “[Hajjarian] knows that there are people who don’t get along with other people in our class, so he tries to put them in groups together.”

Photo by Ada Chen
Photo by Ada Chen
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