AVID Day was created as a national day to celebrate the Advancement Via Individual Determination program. On Friday August 30th, Greeley West celebrated this day by having their senior AVID classes and teachers put together a celebration for the AVID students at West. It was filled with games, guest speakers, and a banner signing by the AVID students.
Dr. William Anderson, one of the guest speakers, is a former member of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and is Dean for University of Denver education department. He took some time to give seniors advice and answer some pondering questions. “College and graduate school are very different from high school; you’re spending a lot of time studying things that you want to study. It’s more about learning about the stuff you love and it’s fun, that helps you not lose motivation,” Anderson said.
Anderson addressed more than 500 AVID students at Greeley West High School and shared his journey from a GPA in the 2.0 region to earning his doctorate. He encouraged the students to persevere and to work through their difficulties to make “generational change” for their families. Anderson even discussed his own child, who walks around the Denver University campus like “he owns it.”
In a small break-out session with the seniors, Anderson credited his time in AVID. “AVID has helped a lot with consistency. I’s annoying, but routine matters and if you can be consistent then you can achieve,” Anderson said.
Mr. Ryan Pace, senior AVID teacher and one of the teachers who had a bigger role in putting the event together was grateful for the outcome. “When coming up with AVID Day, we wanted to highlight the community aspect that AVID brings. So we got freshman through seniors all together so we can all celebrate,” Pace said.
Senior Ivan Garcia, one of the senior AVID ambassadors felt positive about the outcome. “I like that AVIDA helps students get college ready and AVID Day was a chance to convince students to stay in AVID. I also saw the importance of bringing everyone a bit closer together with the cool activities we did,” Garcia stated.
Garcia liked to see the success stories from AVID and enjoyed seeing everyone else hear them. “Dr. William Anderson said we need to find our why and I wanted AVID students to find out why in terms of staying in AVID. I also wanted AVID Day to show the importance of AVID and I think it was shown since we had two very successful speakers,” Garcia said.
