Conroe High School AVID Program Visits College Campuses
Written by: Allison Kuon, Senior at Conroe High School
CONROE, TEXAS (October 18, 2022) – The AVID program attended a campus tour with some DECA and Student Council members to both Blinn College and Texas A&M University in late September.
AVID, an elective that centers on college and career readiness, has been preparing these trips for students to explore the fundamentals of two types of colleges.
“So, this was a fun one,” AVID Site Coordinator Allison Deavours said. “We went to Blinn first, which is a two-year program, followed by a big school that most people know, Texas A&M.”
AVID was accompanied by DECA, an organization focused on business and marketing.
“It takes a lot of pre-planning from the teacher's side to make sure that everything is in order,” Deavours said. “Thank goodness Mrs. Hinze is in charge of this one, mainly the organization side.”
Unlike past college visits, this trip was more interactive.
“We broke out into different majors,” Deavours said. “Kids who were interested in engineering received a special tour over at the engineering department. If kids were interested in the medical path we split them off and they went to the medical one.”
Despite having toured other universities, seniors like Logan Irving looked forward to the ambiance that the schools bring.
“A lot of large colleges have their own type of atmosphere to them, like the life and city around them,” Irving said. “It’s a big thing for a lot of people.”
While these visits may not be helpful to those who are committed to certain schools, the seniors continued to take note of what these schools had to offer.
“In reality, they’re not that beneficial to me,” senior Laura Bejarano said. “I don’t really want to go to those schools, but it’s a great experience to be around other people, especially during senior year.”
According to senior Yuliza Nunez, the program's use of the tour helped compare and contrast potential options when committing to a college.
“We talked about the different opportunities you can get from two different schools,” Nunez said. “Seeing community schools outside of Conroe, as well as a university, is really beneficial to see what it will be like.”
Many seniors in AVID prepared themselves by researching their potential majors.
“I’m very interested in becoming a vet,” senior Fabian Castillo said. “I did a little bit of research on the college that we’re going to see what I can find and what interests me inside that college.”
With senior year just beginning, it is important for AVID students to identify what they want to do beyond high school. Bejarano, for example, was recently accepted into GCU.
“During my first two years of AVID, I figured out what I wanted to do,” Bejarano said. “During junior year, I figured out what colleges I wanted to go to. This year, it’s just seeing whether or not I actually want to go to those colleges.”
According to Deavours, these college visits help make those decisions.
“Senior year is just a lot in general,” Deavours said. “Giving them that experience, letting them interact with people, set foot on the campus and see for themselves that this is something that they want instead of just something that they’ve been told that they need to want; I think that’s always my goal.”
