UNC Asheville to Award Inaugural AVID Scholarship

AVID and CAYLA students at last summers Me2We conference.

AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a college preparedness program in Asheville City Schools.

For some 15 years, 100’s of AVID students have a near 100% college attendance rate. UNC Asheville is a proud supporter of that success with more than 100 UNC Asheville students working each year as tutors at Asheville High, SILSA, and Asheville Middle Schools.

Kim Kessaris directs the AVID Tutoring program and knows the win/win experience for both students and tutors. She shared that, “UNC Asheville students often work as AVID tutors for multiple semesters and consider this experience to be crucial to their development as future professional educators and community leaders.”

Now scholarships are being added to that support. Beginning in the 2015-16 school year, AVID Scholarships will be awarded to Asheville City Schools AVID participants who have been part of the AVID program for at least two years. The scholarship will be renewable for three years.

Jerome Hughes directs the High School AVID program and knows the critical importance of financial aid.

Says Hughes, “Scholarship aid makes a big difference to our AVID students. I am confident that we will have more Asheville City Schools AVID students attending UNC Asheville as a result of the scholarship.”