It is easy to recognize an AVID student; they are often the ones carrying around large, organized binders, asking teachers for an essential question before taking notes, attending study sessions, and visiting teachers outside of class to find ways to improve their grade. These — and many more — outstanding characteristics help each AVID student receive a college acceptance letter and various scholarships. It isn’t hard to see that their hard work pays off.

    This achievement and determination is what AVID teacher Kristen Olander seeks to recognize at the annual AVID Celebration held toward the end of the school year.

    “It’s a celebration where the kids and their parents come and celebrate them being in the AVID program because AVID is really rigorous and hard,” she said. “It’s more of a reflective process where [they] go ‘Oh, it was worth it,’ even after all the blood, sweat, and tears.”

     This year the celebration was held on Tuesday, April 26. AVID students and their parents filled the theatre and experienced a night of excitement — and a little nostalgia — as students were called up one by one to receive a certificate and watch slideshows filled with pictures from each class.

         In preparation for the celebration, Olander spent time with AVID teachers Julie Schmidt, Javier Quintana, Jennifer Murrin-Loomis, and Erin Dwyer to help choose students who met the requirements for different awards, some of which included the AVID Determination award and the Exemplary AVID award. The students also participated leading up to the celebration by each writing a letter to a teacher who used the AVID strategies in class throughout the school year —  the teacher with the most letters received the AVID Content Teacher of the Year award.

    “We try to celebrate everyone. Every student [gets] called up onstage and [receives] a certificate of participation,” Olander said. “We read their name and take a class photo because by senior year they have to put together a senior portfolio [with] all the things that they earn.”

    For seniors, especially, this can be really emotional because the portfolio reflects all that they have done throughout high school, and includes not only photos from AVID, but their transcript, college acceptance letters, and scholarships.

     Senior Ann Kaur was one student given special recognition at the ceremony, winning the Outstanding AVID Senior award. Each year, one senior is chosen for the award based off of their accomplishments they make throughout high school, both inside and outside the AVID program.

     “It is unbelievable that I was recognized for the things that I did,” she said. “I felt that I wasn’t deserving of this award.”

     Whether they win a special award or not, the AVID Celebration is still a special night for all AVID seniors. After years of working together to accomplish goals, the celebration ends up being one of the last get-togethers before the students head off to continue their path, wherever that may be.

     “Everyone who was in AVID with me, they’re like family,” Kaur said. “Knowing that we are all in this together and we are all going to college, it was very warm and cheerful.”