Every other year, the AVID program ventures out of state to visit different colleges with his year’s stop being Northern California. AVID students are stopping at Cal Poly San Louis Obisbo, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, Cal State Monterey Bay and Santa Clara University next week for their Fall trip. All of these colleges have various aspects which make them unique to visit.
Deciding which campuses to visit is very important as accommodations have to be made for students attending.
AVID coordinator Cari Secrist has coordinated these trips for the past three years.
“We sat down and had a meeting with Mrs. Lewis in the College and Career Center [where] she gave us a list of schools that she felt would be super appropriate and accessible for our students.”
The location of the schools can be just as important of a factor when deciding as the schools themselves.
“Where we go is up for discussion every year. This year I have juniors and we talked about where they wanted to go at the end of their sophomore year, and the Bay Area came up quite a bit,” Secrist said.
The AVID trip can really influence someone’s decision on where they want to go for college. These can be positive or negative influences as well.
“The college trip to Texas helped me figure out that I did not want to go to Texas,” senior Jolie Netus said.
Visiting different colleges can help students find their priorities and what they are and aren’t looking for in college.
“I think it’s very important to figure out, before you apply, whether or not you like the college life and its surroundings and if even one of them doesn’t fit your needs wants or expectations, it’s probably not the college for you,” Netus said.
Additionally, these trips serve as an opportunity to get students out of their comfort zone and talk to new people in different grades and classes.
“My favorite part is probably vacationing with my friends because some of my best friends are in AVID so being in a hotel room and being able to share that experience with them is super fun,” junior Norah Lees said.
These AVID trips provide a sense of what different colleges have to offer by exposing students to the different possibilities which lie ahead of them.