As the bell rings to start the school day, the student prepares for class and gets ready for the day ahead of her. When she arrives to first period, she takes out her notes and the homework from the previous day for review. After review, she continues her cornell notes, ensuring she gets all of the main points in the lesson.

AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is an elective students take to improve their learning techniques and help them prepare for college. Freshman AVID student Onnalee Floriano uses the organization and note-taking skills she is learning in her avid class to better her first year of high school.

“AVID helps me in my classes because I know how to take proper notes and I can go through and highlight questions I may not know and need help on,” Floriano said. “We do tutorials ( where students are split into groups based on the academic questions they have. They then work together solving all of the questions they have) so I can work with other people who have the same classes as me, and it helps me with questions I may not know.”

Floriano heard about AVID before she attended high school and knew it was a class she wanted to take.

“I talked to Mrs. Goode about the program and she told me that it was going to prepare me for college and help me with my organization skills,” Floriano said. “I was really interested about what it would do for me.”

Beyond school, Floriano can use AVID to better her life. It has shown her ways to improve her work environment.

“I will definitely use the note-taking skills, the organization skills, and the working with my peers when I have a job,” Floriano said.

Managing seven classes worth of homework and softball, Floriano kept track of everything in one place to ensure nothing was forgotten.

“At the beginning of the year, Mrs. Goode would encourage us to write in a planner,” Floriano said. “It would help me keep up with my homework and after-school activities.”

Overall, Floriano found AVID to be a great resource to have as she transitioned into high school and continues to advance in her classes.

“It made it a lot easier, like knowing where to keep my stuff and keep myself organized and not being lost with everything,” Floriano said.