Required Class? by Jasmine

Required Class? by Jasmine - June 2018 Scholarship Essay

AVID is a class that helps prepare students for college and the life that lies ahead. This is done by writing essays to improve techniques, regularly writing about plans for the future and the steps that will be taken to reach this, and doing TRF’s once every week. These activities set students up for success in the world and make the transition from adolescent life to adult life a much easier one.
I have been in this class for 3 years now and the thing that’s helped me the most is the essays that we write on various topics to improve our writing style and techniques. This has helped me write improved essays for all my classes when I’m assigned to write one which, in turn, improves my grade as well. In this class we are always putting what we've learned to use by applying to scholarships and doing quick writes. We have also done a service learning project to help others be more knowledgeable in a certain subject and reach out to everyone.
Knowing what you want in the future takes a lot of thinking and some adults don't even know what they want yet! It is a very hard and tricky thing to figure out because there are so many options available. AVID helps make this whole situation easy by prompting us to think about goals and plan how we're going to achieve them. We have planned for goals months in the future, a year, and a couple years. This keeps us constantly planning and taking action to accomplish what we have decides to set out and do. Figuring out the future was once a very stressful thing, but AVID takes most of the stress away and a lot of people know what their action plan is by graduation thanks to this class.
TRF’S are a process to help students solve problems that they do not understand. A paper is handed out that asks what the student is confused about, key terms, what they know, critical thinking (which is the portion of the paper where you try to solve the problem), and steps for how to solve the problem. Once the paper is filled out, we get in small groups and present. During the presenting process, other students and sometimes the teacher attempts to help the person presenting their problem by asking questions. This is done once a week and improves our problem solving skills along with our ability to speak publicly.
A class that I think should be a requirement is AVID. This class helps with writing, applying for scholarship, and problem solving/public speaking. It also helps you get ready for adulthood and applying for college. I think that if this was a required class, graduating high school and transition into a more responsible and mature state would become less stressful and encourage many to enjoy this process as it is an important part of life.