determined for success

By Ruby Castillo

Alondra Castellanos, current junior at Yerba Buena Highschool, is the current club president for Avid. Avid stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. Avid is a four year commitment.

16 year old Alondra Castellanos: “Avid is a first generation program that is provided for students who have an education and have the plan to go to college or 4 year university the program is for students whose parents didn't go to college or to university and is to help them build an education and a stable environment for them to be able to support off of to be able to go to a 4 year university and yea that it basically what avid is”

Alondra already being the independent person she is inside and outside of school mentions some of her favorite qualities about herself, getting into the club is easy but being the president and leader of the class is completely different.

Alondra Castellanos: “Some favorite qualities about myself are just I believe getting things done although I may have a lot of things going on in the moment at school or in my personal life I still manage to get things done and another quality about myself that I appreciate I like is that I am outgoing and talkative.“

Being the president of a club at school isn't easy. I'm sure there are challenges being faced, because it's so much time and dedication and pressure on Alondra.

Castellanos “Honestly I believe that the biggest challenge that I've had to face while being in the club is learning everything myself because being in the club you are expected to be independent and learn new things, rules, and assets that you need to do and become as you are being a leader and it honestly is just challenging to having to learn everything yourself”.

Alondra Castellanos is a junior. It's her 3rd year at YB, her third year in the AVID class, and her 2nd year being club president. She was in complete shock when she found out she was club president.

Castellanos “My reaction when I found out that I was officially the president of AVID was complete shock. I was in disbelief and I felt a huge rush of accomplishment and happiness”.

There is a reason behind everything. When filling out her classes for 9th grade you choose your classes, what made her join avid and why did she want to be in it.

Castellanos “I decided to join avid when I was in 8th grade when we were filling out the papers to take courses in high school I believe that I saw it as a great opportunity and a great program that I wanted to be able to be in to hopefully achieve better and bigger things for myself for my future, ”my experience freshman year was definitely much different than my previous years due to it being my first year I was nervous and I didn't really know what was going on but after the first semester I did experience very good things that benefited me academically and I would definitely recommend it, the program and club to incoming freshman due to all the benefits and support you get from the club and teachers”

Alondra isn't just a part of AVID at YB she mentions how she's also involved in other things after school.

Castellanos “Another club that I am involved in is terra which is kind of another club that is kind of avid . It's the garden, it's the terra garden. A school sport i am currently in is Yerba Buena Girls Soccer”

16 year Alondra sums up the interview with some of the benefits Avid has given her and the doors it has opened up for her.

Castellanos “Being in AVID has impacted me in many ways not only academically but in my personal life. I've learned new assets and skills that I use in my personal life like organization and planning. “Being president of AVID has definitely opened new doors for me academically and for my future and it has definitely benefited me in many ways”