A Look at Highlights

In the last five years:

• 93% of AVID seniors have earned at least one or more college acceptances.

• Each class has consistently increased the amount of scholarship and financial aid money.  The class of 2017 has a collective total of $4.37 million in scholarship and financial aid offers over the next four years, nearly doubling the class of 2016's $2.2 million.

• The program has continued to grown and serve more students.  Starting in 2015, we have added a second freshman class each year.  For 2017-2018 we will have two freshman classes, two sophomore classes, two junior classes and one senior class. The program now serves over 250 students.  Our goal is to serve approximately 14% of the students on campus by 2020.

Archive:

2005-2006 School Year

• Ninety percent of AVID Seniors have been accepted to four-year universities. By March, we already had thirty-five university acceptances, including acceptances to UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Cal Poly Pomona, San Diego State University, San Francisco State, Cal State Fullerton, Colorado State, Arizona State, Johnson Wales, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal State Fresno, and Cal State Northridge.

• AVID sophomores Victoria and Amanda Baker have been selected for the Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year Award in San Clemente. Amanda is the number one standout in Orange County for the Boys and Girls Club and continues on to compete at the state level.

• AVID students competed in the local Rotary Speech Contest and, among those, freshman Jake Miller earned first place and continued onto the area contest and earned second place.

• Junior James Frohlich, only the third student from SCHS since 2000, has been nominated as a Distinguished Alumni from National Young Leaders Conference and has received an invitation to the Global Young Leaders Conference.

• Senior Tyson League earned first place for the local Lions Speech Contest. He also attended the San Clemente Model Congress Rutgers University Conference.

• Seniors Ana Gurrola, Yadira Oseguera, Quinton Pearson, Tyson League, and Pratish Patel attended an Orange County United Way leadership meeting to provide student perspectives.

• Sophomore Kaylie Clendenon earned third place for Orange County's Psychiatric Society's essay contest, junior Dari Soeraadiningrat earned second place for Saddleback College's Personal Essay Contest, and senior Alex Boyd earned second place for Saddleback College's Short Story Contest.

• Ten AVID freshmen attended the AVID Student Leadership Conference at UCI.

• Eight AVID students joined IB students to serve voluntarily as peer tutors for the SCHS Wednesday Tutorial Program.

• Several AVID students helped CUSD launch the new middle school program Activate at Shorecliffs through volunteering as mentors and tutors.

• Under the direction of Nicky Budde, the AVID program teamed with the SCHS football team to raise funds at football games to support the Hurricane Katrina victims.

• Thirty AVID students attended the Jenna Druck Young Women's Leadership Conference in San Diego.

• AVID students toured Loyola Marymount University UCSD this school year.

• Thirty-five AVID Students participated in a job shadowing career day, hosted by Camp Pendleton, to investigate career interests.

• Nicky Budde, a valuable SCHS staff member, continued to serve as an assistant teacher/tutor.

• Jesus Montoya, an academic advisor from the district level, continued to work with the SCHS AVID team this year, serving as an additional advisor, tutor, and mentor on a regular basis.

• Besides Maureen Scherf, our AVID Counselor, the AVID Site Team grew to include academic advisor Rachele Ross, teachers Carole Havens and Amy Townsend, and career guidance specialist Barbara Laird.

• The AVID Student Leadership Team helped successfully lead parent workshops, financial aid workshops for parents of seniors, college campus visits, and teambuilding activities including a movie night.

• The AVID Student Leadership Team, along with many AVID students, successfully hosted the Valentine's Dance for the fourth time.

• The AVID Student Leadership Team continued to print the AVID Alert.

• Tutors Gary Knapp (Physics Chemistry), Cheryl Knapp (Algebra II and Geometry), and Jerry White (History) volunteered their time on a weekly basis to serve their community through AVID.

2004-2005 School Year

• Ninety percent of AVID seniors who enrolled in AVID for three or four years earned acceptance to four-year universities.

• Senior Norma Molina was one of six nominees for the prestigious Triton of the Year Award.

• Seniors Jeff Tsui and Norma Molina were the two San Clemente candidates nominated for Youth of the Year award for the Boys and Girls Program.

• Junior Jenny Buchanan received the American Miss National Volunteer Service Award for the year 2004.

• Junior Brett Lowers, a San Clemente Sea Scout, attended the Scout Advanced Leadership Training summer of 2005 for promising skippers.

• Juniors Travis Michelsen and Yadira Oseguera represented SCHS at the RYLA Leadership Camp.

• Junior Tyson League, one of nineteen SCHS students, attended the Harvard Model Congress forum in Boston, playing an important role on its National Security Council.

• Sophomore Caitlin Smith was a semi-finalist for the International Open Poetry Contest.

• Twenty AVID students attended the Jenna Druck Young Women's Leadership Conference in San Diego.

• The following AVID Seniors received these scholarships: Jeff Tsui-United Way AVID Scholarship for $1,000, Coral Thrift Shop for $1,500, and San Clemente Kiwanas for $1,000; Norma Molina-Soroptimist International of Capistrano Bay Violet Richardson Awards for $500 three Kiwanas Scholarships totaling $1,600; Luci Hernandez-San Clemente Rotary Club for $1,000; Chantal Gonzales-Capistrano / Dana Point Historical Society for $500 and Host Lions Club for $500; Vanessa Gonzales-Architectural Scholarship for $1,000; Morgan Groos-Coral Thrift Shop for $1,500.

2003-2004 School Year

• One hundred percent of AVID seniors who enrolled in AVID for four years earned acceptance to four-year universities.

• Senior Sergio Silva earned a $20,000 scholarship through the Dell Scholars Program, available only to AVID students.

• Senior Jignesh Tijoriwala earned a full scholarship to Cal State Long Beach.

• Junior Norma Molina, nominated by Sheriff Corona, received an award for her outstanding efforts in the SCHS Freshman Mentor Program as part of National Volunteer Recognition Week.

• Luci Hernandez, Tyson League, Juan Brittos, Kevin Osborne, and Vanessa Gonzales represented SCHS at the RYLA Leadership Camp.

• Twenty AVID students attended the Young Women's Leadership Conference hosted by UCSD.

• Junior Allie Dilbeck earned first place local recognition for the Rotary Speech Contest. She also won a poetry contest with Creative Communications Inc., and her poem was published in the anthology A Celebration of Young Poets.

• Sophomore Tyson League received first place for the Sunrise Speech Contest of San Clemente.

2002-2003 School Year

• One hundred percent of AVID seniors enrolled in AVID for four years earned acceptance to four-year universities.

• Dima Askar was recognized as the #1 AVID Senior Standout in San Diego and Orange County. She also received $29,000 in grants to attend her first choice university, USD. At SCHS, she was nominated for Triton of the Year Award.

• Freshman Tyson League earned state level recognition for the Rotary Speech Contest and $500 of scholarship money for college.