By Cara Moultrup

The Daily Northwestern

Alison Fink’s name is scrawled across a poster from Indiana’s Ball State University. The poster hangs on the Wall of Dreams, where Evanston Township High School seniors in the Advancement via Individual Determination program have hung posters of their dream schools.

Fink was the first AVID student to sign the wall, but AVID Director Venessa Woods knows there will be more names.

“It’s pretty neat to sit there and see all their dreams on the wall,” Woods said. “It makes me work a little harder.”

The AVID curriculum, formed 20 years ago in San Diego, provides college preparation for minority students who are not working up to their potential, Woods said. It gives students the focus and skills they need to be admitted to their dream schools.

Fink said that in junior high she never thought about college. But AVID inspired her and gave her the skills to make college a reality.

“Getting into college was overwhelming, but AVID broke it down,” she said.

The first class of ETHS seniors who have spent their four years with the AVID program will graduate in the spring. There are now a total of 147 students in the program, which is run by four teachers who teach both AVID and other ETHS classes.

The seniors chose their dream schools during their sophomore year, when they were required to research three schools. The posters represent a goal they are working to achieve.

AVID students have five class periods per week. They attend college preparation classes two days a week and spend another two days in tutorial classes. On Friday, motivational speakers give presentations.

Freshman AVID students learn study skills, organization and time management. During their sophomore year, they review writing and critical-thinking skills. During their junior year, they have standardized test preparation. And in their senior year, students focus on college application and preparation.

Woods said that keeping students on track to college involves both nagging and praise.

“I had to use all my resources to keep them afloat,” Woods said. If they need help, she said, “you get down and you study and you learn with the kids.”

Part of AVID is “breaking their own mind habits,” Woods said.

“They’ll say, ‘It’s too hard,’ or ‘I’m the only minority in the class,'” she said.

Woods said she responds, “Maybe you’re the only minority, but you’re a trailblazer.”

The program serves mostly women. Minority men tend to look down on these programs, Woods said. Their friends will pressure them not to “act white” by doing well in school.

“They haven’t bought into education being a ticket to anything,” Woods said.

But there are male students such as LaJon Survillion, who filled out an application for Syracuse University during a recent tutorial period.

“I probably wouldn’t even be filling out college applications now if it weren’t for AVID,” Survillion said.

While the program is identified as minority-achievement oriented, Woods said she would never leave a student out solely based on color.

But Woods said the program is “trying to meet a need”: closing the minority achievement gap. The program’s sophomore class is divided between white and minority students, but other classes are predominantly minority.

Although there are no statistics yet on progress on standardized tests, students are winning merit awards, including two students honored at last week’s Hispanic achievement awards ceremony.

A similar “home-grown” program offered by ETHS is Steps Toward Academic Excellence, which has been operating at ETHS for 16 years. Its goals are related to AVID, and it attempts to increase minority enrollment in upper-level classes, said Marion Kelley, a founder of the program and the current coordinator.

“Both programs, through very different strategies, have bolstered student achievement,” said Denise Martin, District 202 assistant superintendent and ETHS principal.

Kelley said STAE encourages students to work to their full potential by having more minority students take honors classes and be successful in them. The program provides students with both academic and motivational support.

Students in STAE must agree to attend summer school in either math, English or both. They have special study halls, workshops and, beginning last year, ACT preparation. The program takes sophomores and juniors on college tours.

Students in STAE form a close-knit group, Kelley said.

“You meet a lot of friends in STAE,” junior Mya Edwards said. Her friend, senior Amy Bottorff, agreed that camaraderie was one of the most important parts of the program.

Bottorff, who is applying to six colleges, recommended the program.

“Don’t ever pass it by if you have the opportunity,” she said.

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Achievement program creates AVID learners

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ETHS offers college preparation, skill development to minority students