Mr. Kaiser is a creative writing teacher here at C.H.S. as well as the leader of AVID. AVID is an amazing support program at our high school that helps first generation college goers to get through the process of applying to schools, scholarships, and financial aid. AVID opens up resources to people who wouldn’t be able to access higher education on their own. AVID’s motto is “Decades of College Dreams”, they are helping find their passion as well as their motivation, in order to get them to college. A program that they follow religiously is W.I.C.O.R. This stands for Writing Inquiry Collaboration Organization and Reading. All ways to successfully get students through higher education.

Q – What is the relationship between AVID and the CFA?

A – “Dr. Kelly Palmer and I met to discuss ways that we could improve the AVID space and the opportunities we could offer. Not just to the students in the AVID program but also students of Charlottesville High School. We created initiatives together, along with Mrs. Maynard, Dr. Irrizary, to first renovate the AVID space so students are learning in a modern learning environment. They now have the flexibility to move things around, have more writing space, and more tools at their fingertips. We also asked ourselves, what could we do to increase our financial awareness? Since the CFA is a financial institution, we asked what can we do to increase the students financial literacy. This affects not just the AVID students but also members of the investment club and economic and personal finance students. We created initiatives included in the grant we got approved so that we could offer these opportunities to students. So we have things like a summer camp, we are able to send the student investment group to different competitions. We also take college trips where we get more of a financial picture of college. Basically, we put all of those together and the grant was approved. Last week there was a ribbon cutting to celebrate the AVID room being finished. We are hoping to continuous for the next three years and continue to offer these opportunities and essentially grow the financial literacy of all students.”

Q – How much was the grant?

A – “It was $83,000 for the initiatives and $50,000 for the room.”

Q – How did you get this set up with the CFA?

A – “I had met Dr. Palmer informally, and the conversation about AVID and what it needs just naturally started. I told her all about the program at C.H.S. and she was inspired by the passion behind the club. So, she came here for the African American portraits that Mrs. Wilson does with her students. She found AVID students were doing the portraits and she asked them to tell her more about the program. They were very positive and discussed the difference between them and their peers who are not in AVID. Many stated, ‘I’m so far into the application process and my friends are having trouble or haven’t even started yet. AVID is like where all my best friends are and we are like a family’. She heard all of the positive stuff and it aligned with what I had told her, so she knew I wasn’t just saying stuff. When she saw the pride and passion that was so deep rooted in the program. This lead her to ask; “what can we do to make this? What do you need?” And I said, “well we really need a new learning environment–like the space, the furniture, it could all look better.” She started bringing ideas and Dr. I and Mrs. Maynard also threw in all of these ideas. This lead to us drafting a grant, attempting to get all that we could out of this great opportunity. Everything happened very organically. It wasn’t like I applied for this grant and was chosen, it was an informal conversation and from there it took off. This really just goes to show how many great opportunities are out there, all you have to do is start a conversation.”