As an annual event, AVID creates a community service project that change the lives of the Mansfield community for the better. For the first time, the project focused on a college and career fair funded by the MISD Foundation. Instead of the usual college representatives, AVID juniors represented and talked about a college. Along with Ms. Roberts, AVID and BIM teacher Ms. Harris helped the juniors set up their college posters and prepared them for the fair.
“Overall it was a rewarding experience,” Ms. Harris said. “I feel we did an excellent job in our prepping and presentation. [The students] final product looked professional.”
The AVID junior and some sophomores from Legacy, Timberview, Lake Ridge, Mansfield, Summit and Frontier helped run the event, with the juniors representing a college by handing out brochures and answering questions, and the sophomores organizing and guiding the sixth, seventh and eighth graders to make the fair run smoother. Ms. Roberts, the BIM and AVID teacher, helped the sophomores and other AVID teachers organize the students to make the fair successful.
“The college and career fair was a success,” Ms. Roberts said. “I heard feedback from sixth, seventh, and eighth graders that their child enjoyed the event and came home talking about college.”
The juniors Ananda Rincon and Mikayla King represented Columbia University, Sophia Rico and Carlos McDougal represented University of North Texas, Hayden Taylor represented Texas Christian University, Maiah Jones and Hannah Pikey represented Oklahoma State University, Dominique Lopez and Justus Fields represented Louisiana State University, Brooklynn McKinney and Delfino Vasquez represented Midwestern State University, and Zariah Shields represented Texas State University for the AVID college fair.
“The high school students did a great job helping out all day,” Ms. Roberts said. “It was a lot of work and took a lot of preparation and they did a great job.”
All AVID students from the intermediate and middle schools of Mansfield came to participate in the college fair. For the upcoming years, the expectation to do better to help the students learn more about college and their career places high. Along with the other juniors, Maiah Jones found the experience exciting and beneficial.
“The whole experience was really pleasant and I am glad that I got to teach younger kids about college,” Jones said. “I loved being able to teach the kids.”
