Boys and Girls Club pledges $2.6 million to expand college prep program
Jeanet Ugalde wanted to be the first member of her family to attend college, but without the role models or resources, college remained only a hope for the East High School sophomore until she was accepted last year into a new college preparation program.
"I wanted to break that belief that everybody is going to drop out of school and just (not) go to college, but I wanted to be the one that my family follows and looks up to and does what is best for (their) future," Ugalde said Monday during a news conference at East High announcing the expansion of the Advancement Via Individual Determination program across the Madison Metropolitan School District.
Impressed with the success of the 28 East High students enrolled in the program last year, the Boys and Girls Club of Madison has committed to raising $2.6 million, half the funding needed to increase enrollment to 100 students districtwide this fall and to add 100 each year until an 800-student cap is reached.
"This will fund college preparation for students not currently getting that opportunity," said Boys and Girls Club board President Mary Burke.
Developed in California and based partly on a similar Milwaukee program, AVID is aimed at students from low-income households who want to develop the motivation to succeed in school. It is a daily elective students take throughout high school to improve their study skills, grades and time management.
It has really worked, according to Ugalde.
"My parents were really surprised as the first semester I didn't get all As but I got some Bs but this last semester I got a 4.0, all As in all of my classes," Ugalde said.
AVID also finally makes the college experience seem real for students, who go on campus visits and are tutored three times per week by college students. Sophomore Niva Leu said the best part of the program was learning how to get organized in a way that helps lead to success in school.
"The binders you get helped keep me on track with all my homework, how much I had and how many days I had to do it," she said.
Kewon Thomas, also an East student, had always wanted to attend college but thought it would be too hard. Now, armed with more organizational skills and an improved grade point average, college doesn't seem like such an insurmountable goal.
"AVID is giving me what I need to go to college," he said.
Unlike the PEOPLE program, which is a collaboration with UW-Madison, AVID students are prepared to attend the college of their choice.
"We're not quite a limited as PEOPLE. We see the kids every day for 15 minutes and they come and talk to me about their grades. I know their day as well as they do. We are much more of a family," said Kate Brien, East's AVID coordinator.
Nick Sampson, also a sophomore, agreed that the students bond during the yearlong study sessions.
"We're in a group so it's not just one of us working on our questions, it's the entire group working together to help everyone figure out their questions. It's like a family," he said.
East High already has 60 students on their waiting list for next year as students like Sampson learned from friends how the program has paid off for them in terms of improving their grades.
The Burke Foundation, founded by Mary Burke's late father Richard, is contributing $1.5 million of the $2.6 million the Boys and Girls Club is raising for AVID. Club officials will be looking for more individuals to contribute financially or to become tutors and mentors and people to give marketplace presentations to AVID students during the year.
After paying off its Allied Drive program center, the Boys and Girls Club made AVID a new priority, seeing it as capable of having a major impact on Madison's economy.
"Madison leads the country in Ph.Ds per capita but there are a lot of inequalities that exist here. We need to work together to eliminate that gap," Burke said.
