Two 2015 Asheville High School graduates, Amanda Valdes and Mariah Lee, have become the first recipients of UNC Asheville’s new AVID for Higher Education Scholarship and will attend the university in the fall with all costs covered.
Both students were part of the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) college readiness program during all four years at Asheville High School. They also will be part of the AVID for Higher Education program at UNC Asheville, the only four-year institution in North Carolina to offer the program. The scholarship is earmarked for students in the AVID program at Asheville City Schools. Both AVID programs provide academic support and mentoring to students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and students whose families lack college experience.
“I’m really just grateful to everyone who contributed to the scholarship,” said Valdes at a UNC Asheville reception held to honor the students and thank donors to the AVID Scholarship fund. “It is a great load off our shoulders. I am really, really thankful.”
Raising funds for the new AVID for Higher Education Scholarship has been a grassroots effort, with more than $50,000 raised thus far, all from individual donors. “Friends, you’ve made this happen,” said UNC Asheville Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Buffy Bagwell to donors in attendance. “We know these students will be very successful. Amanda and Mariah, we are so excited that you are here.”
Michael Davis, president of Asheville High School’s graduating class who will also be part of UNC Asheville’s AVID for Higher Education program this fall, came to the reception to honor his classmates. “They are two dear friends of mine,” said Davis. “I’m proud of them for getting the scholarship and very happy for their success.”
The scholarship makes “a huge difference,” said Lee, who plans to be a chemistry major and then attend pharmacy school. “I wouldn’t have been able to afford any other college. Honestly, it’s an amazing scholarship.”
Lee credits organizational and time management skills she gained in AVID and help from AVID teachers with her ability to maintain the high grades she needed for acceptance to UNC Asheville. According to Jerome Hughes, AVID coordinator at Asheville High School and the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville (SILSA), the program’s success comes from its curriculum, field trips to college campuses, and the relationships that are built. “[Students] have an interdisciplinary site team that supports them as they reach toward their college dreams,” said Hughes. Approximately 120 students participate in AVID at Asheville High School and SILSA, according to Hughes.
UNC Asheville students provide important assistance to the AVID programs in Asheville City Schools, with approximately 100 students serving as tutors 2-4 days per week. Lee and Valdes will soon join this effort – “giving back” to Asheville City Schools as tutors is a requirement of the scholarship. They will also benefit from AVID for Higher Education, a program that showed positive results in its first year at UNC Asheville. “AVID students had a fall GPA higher than the general student population and they earned almost 1 ½ more credit hours over the course of the year than their peers,” said Deaver Traywick, director of the Writing Center and tutoring at UNC Asheville, and leader of the university’s AVID program.
For more information about UNC Asheville’s AVID for Higher Education Scholarship, please contact Sallie Broach at [email protected] or 828.232.2407.