Senior Data and Celebrations

AVID Seniors Are Making Things Happen

AVID Class of 2023

ACPS celebrated 14 years of success thus far, the Class of 2023 was the tenth (10th) graduating class from Alexandria City Public Schools and at ACHS (formerly T.C. Williams High School).

This past year’s Class of 2023 accomplishments include: 

• Averaging more than 5 years of AVID elective participation
• Completed more than 64 Advanced Placement courses and  48 dual enrollment credits  (144 credits earned in total with several students completing, 22, 24, and 31 credits)
• Held an average 3.4 GPA
• Twenty (%) percent of student plan to attend a 2-year college along with 82% percent of students plan to attend a 4-year college or university.
• 92%  graduated on-time.
• Twenty of 33 students (60%) were Scholarship Fund of Alexandria award winners, resulting in more than $222,00 in renewal scholarships
• Approximately 91% of students completed 4-year college completion requirements.
• 76% of AVID 12 seniors received or 25 of the 33 seniors received a partial or full tuition scholarship to a college.
• One (1) AVID Senior, student received a $20,000 Dell Scholarship to support university tuition and room and board.

Overall, this cohort has been awarded more than $3.78 in scholarships to various institutions as of May 2023.

Our AVID Seniors are going places!  Over the past years, we have had a majority of students accepted to a variety of in-state and out-of-state, two and four-year colleges and universities.  We are proud to say AVID Seniors are required to apply to four or more colleges and must apply monthly to scholarships as part of their participation in AVID. AVID over time prepares them through early exploration of college applications, financial aid requirements, and personal essay development.  On average, 80% of our AVID seniors have taken part in the AVID elective for three or more years. Over the past several years have had student collect scholarships ranging from $500 to $40,000 with more than ten receiving full scholarships to institutions. With an ivy league engineering student at Cornell, a pre-med student at Georgetown, and many NOVA Pathway to Baccalaureate scholars starting their journey locally, we are excited to have a 78% persistence rate in year two of higher education.

Traditions: Senior Celebrations, Breakfast for Dinner Event and KettleCorn

Each year the Juniors celebrate their Senior peers through a traditional event started more than eight years ago by students and AVID elective staff. This Breakfast for Dinner Event not only serves as a celebration for our seniors who are going places, but it also serves as an annual fundraiser tht brings families and school staff together in celebration of all of the hard work AVID students sustained over their years in AVID.

Another tradition AVID is known for is their twice-a-year kettle corn sales across the local Alexandria Community. To date, students and staff over the past ten years have sold more than 45,000 bags of kettlecorn. Funds from these sales are used for school-based AVID t-shirts for students and staff, support funds for college visits, and allow site teams to celebrate their students at the end of each year.
 

ACPS AVID Dell Scholarship Winner, Ryan Fields, Class of 2022

-a sitdown with AVID Senior, Ryan Fields, Class of 2022

About the Dell Scholars Program:

Each year, the national Dell Scholars Program select 500 applicants from the more than twenty approved college readiness program across the United States.  Student must qualify by demonstrating need and be eligible for the Pell Grant in the fall, be on track to graduate, have a minimum 2.4 GPA and plan to enroll in a fully accredited higher education institute the following year. Nationally, AVID students across the U.S. make up more than 50% of the named Dell Scholars. Alexandria City Public Schools AVID has now had two winners over the past nine years with Mackayla Brandao as the first, who is a NYU graduate and current graduate student.

Question: What does it mean to be a Dell Scholar?

Response: “It feels good, I feel proud that they selected me and I made the 4% of those selected.”

Question: How long have you attended ACPS? What schools did you attend?

Response: Prior to high school, I attended a private school in D.C. then arrived for 9^th grade in ACPS.  My dad wanted me to attend T.C. Williams HS. What dad liked about the high school was AVID.

Question: What other scholarships or awards have you been celebrated with over the years or now as a senior?

Response: Ms. Rhea Butler, my AVID 9 teacher recommended me during my Junior year for a 2 year program, Beta Nu Boule, a men’s mentoring group sponsored by a  local educational fraternity who are all college educated professionals; I will receive $20,000 scholarship from the Boule in June.

I also received the SFA (Scholarship Fund of Alexandria) award of $3000.

I also applied for CIA Scholarship valued up to $25,000 (internship+ training) + pay for undergraduate college and expect 1.5 year of commitment after school. My college, Miami Of Ohio, game me $2000 and admittance into the Honor’s Program, Red Hawk Scholarship Excellence Scholarship of $8000, and I’ve been accepted into the Passport Program in M of O that helps with tutoring during Freshman year.

Question: What college will you be attending?

Response: I will attend Miami University of Ohio. I did a 2- week summer program along with some other high school student,  took a college class on social change. I really enjoyed the class and learned about the Business School – want to major in Business Analytics to be in business development to support the financial side as a business consultant.

Question: Say more about AVID- what has AVID added to your skillset or made you realize about your potential?

Response: Over my four years in AVID since freshman year at AC. HS Minnie Howard, I really enjoyed being in Alexandria. In 9^th grade, I remembers doing a lot of organization with the binders, notebooks, and learn how to write everything down. “The TRF’s (Tutorial Request Forms)…’m not a big science guy and going to teachers was hard for me in 9^th grade, so TRF’s and having tutors helped me to learn science better.”

Question: AVID is all about equity, access, and opportunity knowledge, what is an important message you want to share with other students who look like you?

Response: If you can feel like you are not the smartest in an AP class because of your differences or because you are a minority, you shouldn’t feel left out, you are as smart as others in the class and you can do it!

Question: What do you plan to take with you and leave behind?

Response:  I’ll take with me the study habits, time management. I need to be a lot more focused, so leaving procrastination.