“A program like AVID will help provide vision for all Gilchrist students for college and careers after high school,” said Darla Brandon, careers and academic manager at Gilchrist. “Coming from very a rural and isolated community many students do not know the options available to them. AVID will give them the vision to see those options.”

Gilchrist

Gilchrist is a rural, K-12 school with just 220 students. The closest town, La Pine, is 17 miles away. The closest cities are even farther: Bend at 47 miles away and Klamath Falls at 90 miles away. Gilchrist is a Title I school with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students.

“It’s in a very isolated and secluded portion of Oregon,” Brandon said.” Students attending Gilchrist are further secluded, often taking 45-minute bus rides to school.”

Gilchrist started its AVID program this school year (2016-17) thanks to a $45,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Education College and Career Readiness program. The Nike School Innovation Fund grant will help expand the program next school year, allowing more teachers to bring AVID to the students at Gilchrist, opening their options to a new way of thinking about their futures. It will pay for training five teachers and annual AVID dues.

“Gilchrist school staff and administration have a strong vision to help the underserved in our rural areas,” Brandon said. “The students in our community overcome tremendous obstacles in order to attend school. As educators, we hope to provide them with the training and opportunities to allow them to become successful and productive members of our community. AVID specifically targets these overlooked groups of students in hopes of providing them with the key to breaking the cycle of poverty.”

Chiloquin

This is the second year Chiloquin Jr./Sr. High school has received a Nike Innovation Fund grant for AVID. In 2016, the fund gave Chiloquin $23,000 to start the program in the 2016-17 school year. This year the $11,748 will pay to expand the program in the 2017-18 school year.

The grant will pay for AVID training for five teachers (two teachers will receive advanced training and three new teachers).

In the 2017-18 school year Chiloquin will have an AVID elective for 10th graders (new to the program) and 11th graders (continuing with the program). Chiloquin also implements campuswide strategies for all the students, said Principal Denise Brumels.

“Students are taught organizational skills such as keeping a notebook and planner with due dates for assignments,” Brumels said. “Also, the students are taught proper note taking, Cornell Notes.”

AVID teaches students to think critically about what they are learning, including questioning “which requires students to dig deeper into their learning, not just the surface,” Brumels said. “AVID has provided the consistency factor for the students they may not have experienced before within their learning,” she added.

Chiloquin Jr./Sr. High School has about 130 students in grades seven through 12. It is also a Title I school with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students.

Nike School Innovation Fund

This year marks the 10-year anniversary for the Nike School Innovation Fund. Since 2007, it has invested more than $14 million in public schools, including $5 million since 2015 to support high schools.

This is the third year the Nike School Innovation Fund has supported AVID. In 2015, it gave to 50 schools and in 2016 it gave to 72 schools (including Chiloquin). This year, marking the 10th anniversary, it gave to 100 schools in Oregon.

“With the addition of the 2017-18 grant recipients, this funding supports training for over 2,000 teachers and more than 100,000 students throughout Oregon,” the Nike press release states, “reflecting more than 57 percent of the state’s high school population.”