Giovanna Cortes won the senior standout award for SJHHS AVID on Friday. Cortes is guaranteed a scholarship at the Senior Standout Recognition in April.

There are 31 seniors in AVID, and 15 students were nominated. All nominees are eligible for a scholarship at the end of the year, yet only the senior standout is guaranteed one. Three students from SJHHS last year collectively received $56,000 in scholarship money  through AVID.

AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, and its goal is to help students achieve their goal of attending a four year university after high school, and succeed in it.

“It’s basically built my path towards college. Since I joined AVID my goal was to go to college, a four year university specifically, so I’ve learned everything from organization, reflection, how to communicate with other people, and how to prepare for college,” said Cortes.

It assists students throughout middle and high school by teaching skills for succeeding in school and college that aren’t always taught in other classes.

“AVID’s purpose is multilayered. Not only is it to help kids prepare themselves for the rigors of college but it’s also other things. For freshman it’s really about habits, note taking, organization that sort of thing. As they move through the program it gets more geared towards college and career. In senior year, first semester is about applying for colleges, FAFSA, all that stuff, and second semester we focus on more scholarships as well as the transition from high school to college,” said Janey Gidion, the AVID senior teacher.

AVID students are supposed to act as role models on campus, who participate in class, and have goals that they work to achieve. One of the main purposes of AVID is to promote college on campus.

“I really think we impact the school by sharing that college-going culture,” said Gidion.

AVID students begin the program when they are in sixth grade, and take an AVID class every year until their senior year in high school. This helps facilitate a bond between the students, because they spend years in the same class together.

“I think being with my senior class is my favorite part of AVID. The majority of them came from my middle school, so I’ve been with them since sixth grade so I’ve grown with them. It makes me happy to see them and I made a lot of friends,” said Cortes.