On September 23, the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) class took a trip to Cowell’s beach for a day of teambuilding and paddlebaording. SLV has been offering AVID for a while now, and it is a wonderful resource for the SLV student body. In AVID, students receive tutoring for all of their classes from brilliant tutors, learn strategies for getting into university and are given advice on how to succeed in life after high school.
AVID students spent a whole school day on a fun paddleboarding trip with their classmates while building team skills. Mr. Shoemaker, Ms. van Putten, and many experienced paddleboarders chaperoned the underclassmen on their adventure into the world of stand-up paddleboarding.
Ms. van Putten helped to instruct the students on how to paddleboard, and explained to them how the sport can teach the students a lot about life. “It saddens me to see how much of an ‘I can’t do it’ attitude teenagers can often have. I hope that with this experience they can begin to have more of an ‘I can’ attitude in paddleboarding and life in general,” said Ms. van Putten about the experience. “I’m constantly becoming better at paddleboarding, and practicing paddleboard is in many ways no different from studying for a final or writing an essay that challenges a student.” She is hoping to become much better at paddleboarding in the future and possibly taking students surfing in the spring. Van Putten went on to say, “Paddleboarding is difficult, but can also be very relaxing and rewarding if you choose to challenge yourself– like most things in life.”
Despite the difficulties of paddleboarding, the experience was very rewarding for the AVID students. Many repeatedly fell off mid-ride but most of the students eventually managed to stand up.
One AVID student who went on the trip, Sibylle Weikel, said her favorite part of the trip was the wildlife. She said she, “wasn’t really comfortable at first but overcame fear and just did it. [She] actually found it very relaxing.” Weikel also praised the class saying, “Everyone is always smiling and everyone is friends, we all trust each other.”
Weikel expressed her excitement for the rest of the year in her AVID class saying that she is, “Looking forward to going to the college and career night at Cabrillo. It will be a lot of fun finding things that [she] would like to do when [she’s] older and looking at dozens of colleges.”
Another student lucky enough to go on the AVID trip was Ben Murphy, who said his favorite part of the trip was, “going and being able to have fun while doing something that helps build skills.” He highly recommended the class to other students saying that, “It is a great class to take if you want to be able to go to a good college.” He’s also looking forward to seeing more colleges and getting an idea of where he wants to attend school.
Students had a blast overall and it seems certain that the AVID class will have a great year exploring such opportunities. Many students were green with envy after the AVID students got to take a day off school to go to the beach, and the class will surely become more popular in response to the wonderful class activities offered.
By: Serena Mendoza
The Claw 