AVID college field trip

On Oct. 28, Aragon’s Advancement Via Individual Determination program took their first fall college field trip since the COVID-19 pandemic. During this trip, AVID students of all grades visited two local colleges: San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Students met at Aragon in the morning and took the district school buses to UC Berkeley where they had a guided tour from UC Berkeley and AVID alumni. After spending a couple of hours at UC Berkeley, the AVID classes drove to San Francisco State for a self guided tour. 

Students had a chance to ask the guides questions, learn about each of the campuses, listen to student experiences and consider their options for college.

“I haven’t been to a college campus in a really long time,” said senior Rachel Ramirez, “[I was excited] to see what the whole atmosphere is like, because [you can feel what the campus life is like] just by being on the campus. [I’m] also [excited to see] the types of people that are there. Are there going to be people that look like me, am I going to see a lot of different types of backgrounds and races than I would see at highschool?”

Each semester, AVID classes take one college field trip, a trip for all grades in the fall and a southern California trip for sophomores and juniors in the spring.

“The only [AVID trip] I went on was the huge [Southern California] one, and it was one of the best field trips I’ve ever been on,” said English and AVID teacher Victoria Daniel. “We were all just so thirsty for getting out there. Each of the schools had wonderful tours. We were so happy to be together.”

One of AVID’s missions is to encourage students to attend four-year colleges. AVID teachers hope these field trips will help guide students as they make decisions about college and their future.

“I hope the freshmen start dreaming,” Daniel said. “I hope the sophomores start understanding more about what colleges and what college could look like. I hope that juniors really start narrowing in on what they like and what they don’t like. And I hope the seniors are able to see themselves in college, identify what they like and don’t like and be able to apply [it to their decisions].”

Field trips also serve as a way to bring the classes together. With five AVID teachers and 149 students enrolled this year, the program is considered a family to those enrolled. 

“One thing I think the field trips really do for our AVID program, is create a sense of unity and bonding.” said Ethnic Studies and AVID teacher Courtney Caldwell. “We refer to AVID as our AVID fam[ily]. We’re one big family and so when we get to take these trips [and] bring so many students, we get to mix class periods [and] grade levels. One of my favorite things that they take away from it is that team building [and] community building from being on a trip together.”

In the spring semester, AVID sophomores and juniors will be taking their Southern California trip to California State University Los Angeles, Occidental College, University of Southern California and University of California, Irvine.