As the 2022-2023 school year comes to an end, juniors in Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) Coordinator Jessica Vargas’ classes begin to prepare for their portfolio presentations. The presentations take place during May, where students present to a panel of six to eight judges before or after school.

This year marks the second year of the portfolio presentations for juniors. The presentations count for the juniors’ final and thus, have been preparing for it all year. These presentations consist of multiple sections, such as who the student is, leadership or volunteer experience and academics inside and outside of AVID. Each of these sections hold juniors to an expectation to discover who they are, their growth and ultimately, where they will be going after high school.

“These portfolios offer an opportunity for students to reflect on their time in AVID and their time as a student. It provides the staff members, administrators and counselors with insights as to what AVID is. I can’t run a successful AVID program without strong teachers, admin and counselors,” Vargas said. 

The presentations are meant to be around 10 minutes long and usually done through Google Slides or Prezi. A panel of judges consists of either staff, administration, counselors, Vargas or senior students from AVID classes. Senior Emily Miranda—who completed her junior presentation last year—is one of the senior judges to watch the presentations.

“I think it’s important for other students to hear about the presentations because I feel like people take the advice of peers more than adults. Since they’re the same generation and age range, there’s more things to relate to,” Miranda said. 

Junior Isela Salas-Sanchez is in her second year of AVID, different from most students who joined in the ninth grade. She began preparing for her presentation around the second semester of the 2022-2023 school year by practicing in front of her classmates, which has led to significant changes in her presentation.

“The first few times I was presenting it, I definitely sugar-coated things in my life because I didn’t want people to know [personal things], but then it wouldn’t really be who I am. So telling it how it was and what shaped me and all these things that helped me grow in high school became a lot easier [to tell],” Salas-Sanchez said. 

Salas-Sanchez’s biggest part of the presentation is the first section “Who I am”, which consists of what shaped the student outside and inside an academic setting. According to Vargas, this section is when juniors are asked to look deeper into themselves. These questions asked to juniors facilitate the process of writing personal statements for college applications during senior year.

“I don’t really talk about how it’s impacted me to be a military child, moving around and my learning disabilities because it’s a rough topic. I feel like with the presentations, it’s been something that I can open up more about,” Salas-Sanchez said. “It helped me become more of an open and well rounded person because I’m not so scared about it.”

Vargas started these presentations not only to get juniors thinking about their college applications, but also to exercise skills needed outside of high school, such as public speaking. Furthermore, these presentations provide a “keepsake” for students to look back on after high school.

“I want these reflections to propel them into their senior year. I want these to give them the momentum to get through an emotionally challenging year. [The idea of their senior year] can be very deceiving. You think it’s going to be this great year and it can be not so great,” Vargas said.

From Miranda’s experience, the presentations aided a lot in finding a college specifically fitting for her. Her time in AVID had given her time and resources for college preparation and readiness. 

“One of the main parts of my presentation that I liked was about college readiness and the aspect of choosing a college that fits your specific needs. There isn’t a college that everyone should go to,” Miranda said. “It’s very dependent on how you are as a person and your personality. Narrowing down what you want in a college was very important to me and it helped me choose my school.”

Similarly, the presentation aided Salas-Sanchez in branching out options after high school. Initially, she had some sort of idea of where she wanted to go for college and was ultimately unsure, but joining AVID her junior year as well as preparing for her presentation, opened up her opportunities and options. 

“It helped me open up to more options, looking at other schools because before I was conserved to two schools. I was like, ‘That’s it for me. If I don’t get in, then I’m not gonna go to college,’” Salas-Sanchez said. “With this, there’s these options, I can do this, there’s this career path and these colleges that are beneficial.”

As the AVID juniors continue to prepare for their senior year with these presentations, Vargas sets goals for next year as AVID coordinator. Firstly, she hopes to get 50 percent more teachers to participate in the judging process. This would ensure a movement of student presentations during teachers’ preparation periods. 

“This makes sure students get a good panel [of judges]. The principal, assistant principals, counselors and a lot of teachers will sign up, especially teachers that know about it. Every single time they’re here, they’re happy they came. It’s another window into a program at our school and everyone’s involved in this program in some way,” Vargas said.

As a senior judge who has done the presentation herself, Miranda encourages juniors not to be nervous since “everyone has been in that position before.” Furthermore, Miranda hopes for students to join AVID for all the experiences she’s learned over the course of her four years.

“I have a sense of accomplishment because I finished all of the four years. As a freshman, you’re not really thinking about your senior year and you don’t think it comes by so fast until it’s actually there. I think it’s also exciting, having it be done for four years and saying, ‘I’m finally done with this and I think it helped me a lot so I’m proud that I did it,’” Miranda said.