Senior Chance Fullmer was introduced to AVID in middle school but didn’t join until his freshman year of high school during distance learning in 2020 pandemic. “I’ve been doing [AVID] in high school specifically because of the college preparatory part,” Fullmer said.

 During Fullmer’s time in AVID, the class had Fun Fridays, during which the students got the opportunity to play kickball or do other bonding activities. “[AVID adviser Lucas Risinger also] brought the whole class a stovetop,” Fullmer said, “and we made breakfast burritos during class.”

“For Fun Friday, a couple of my classmates brought a ton of duct tape, and we taped Risinger to the wall in the hallway,” Fullmer said. However, the fun in AVID is also accompanied by a community that you can take with you to different aspects of your life. “I may not know all of them personally, but I’m closer with them than anyone else in the school because I’ve been in the same class as them for four years of my life,” Fullmer said. 

 “Senior year is a lot of applying for scholarships, and then applying to specific colleges and getting FAFSA and Oregon Promise [to get] a walk-through of it,” Fullmer said. “We knew about FAFSA and the Oregon Promise and all the scholarships, weeks to maybe a month before,” Fullmer said. “[We] had a senior meeting on it.”

Senior Katherine Croco started AVID in sixth grade but left the program when the AVID advisor left. “I got reintroduced to [AVID] my junior year when my childhood best friend was in the class,” Croco said. “I didn’t see a purpose for it [during] my freshman and sophomore years, and then I thought, ‘Why not?’”

The AVID program often takes field trips to colleges so students can gain new experiences. “We were all on the bus, and one of [the students] brought their speaker, on which he was playing a bunch of songs,” Croco said. “‘Young Wild and Free’ by Snoop Dogg was playing, and our teacher was getting into it, but it was the explicit version, which I thought was really funny.”