The AVID Seniors of 2017 have reached a record high of $4.2 million in scholarship money. The seniors started applying to colleges in August and since then have accumulated money from over 70 different schools. The MCHS class of 2017 seniors had a goal of beating the class of 2013, which received $1.6 million. Unexpectedly, the class of 2017 reached their goal in early October after being awarded $1.7 million.Since achieving their goal, they have exceeded their goal by nearly four times. Even though this is an abundant amount of money, it was gathered by only 16 students whom all have different goals and different colleges that they wish to attend.

On average each student raised about $250,000 in scholarship money from various schools.

Senior AVID student Samantha Lanham was surprised by the achievement of her class.  “We had faith that we would reach the goal, but we never thought we would reach it so quickly into our senior year.”

Another AVID student, Mathew Chatham, felt differently. “I wasn’t surprised that we were able to reach the goal because of how determined everyone is.”

AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. It is a college readiness class that prepares students for college by teaching them valuable skills. AVID as a whole focuses on organization, proper note-taking, and a tedious tutorial process. Each year of AVID develops more skills as the students go through high school tasks. Senior year of AVID focuses on applying to colleges, preparing students for the SAT and ACT, teaching students how to apply for the FAFSA, and completing an internship, all while teaching the students the importance of encouragement from peers and making the right decisions.

AVID students believe that this amount of money, accounts for the amount of work they have put into their high school courses.

Senior Maddie Holland is grateful for the scholarship but wished the money could be dispersed differently. “I wish we could take all of the $250,000 and use it at the college that we decide to go to.”

The class of 2017 was individually interviewed by an AVID advisor at the end of their eighth grade year. It was required that each student be accepted into the AVID program in order to have it as a class on their high school schedule for the 2013-2014 school year. Freshmen AVID was compacted into two different classrooms due to the excessive amount of students, but there was a traumatic drop in enrollment moving into their sophomore year, leaving 16 students involved in this program for the class of 2017.

The next step for these AVID students is choosing which college they will attend and completing their internship while still having more time to add to their $4.2 million total.