Submitted by Eric Perry, AVID Program Manager, Central Region

On November 1^st, 2021, I was offered the position of Program Manager with AVID Center. Besides my wedding, and birth of my children, it was the best day of my life. I knew I would still have a chance to impact students by working with AVID educators and administration.

I was placed with the SWARM Team within AVID’s Central Region. The states that I would be assigned to support was Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. As any Program Manager would do, I started to research my territories and school districts. In looking at Salt Lake City (SLC), Utah, they only had two schools that were still AVID—West, and East High schools. However, in digging a little bit deeper, it was puzzling in the fact that at one time SLC, Utah had 8-12 AVID schools. My conclusion at that time was this was obviously a district trending in the wrong direction, but I questioned why two schools (East and West) are still part of AVID.

I reached out to introduce myself to the administration at East High School. East joined the AVID family in 2007. However, due to some political decisions within the district, and other external factors surrounding funding, there was not an active District Director for SLC. My curiosity about the two schools, now turned to a sense of being dumb founded. How would two high schools stay on the books with AVID, given all the other factors that caused many others to discontinue?

I was directed to contact Stephanie Shelton, AVID Coordinator at East High School. Per the notes from previous PM, and in speaking with Stephanie prior to my visit, East had not had anyone AVID visit in the past 3-4 years. Stephanie and I agreed it was time for a visit and we scheduled it for early-February 2023. During that visit I would meet/greet with East administration and facilitate training on WICOR for staff.

Stephanie Shelton met me in the parking lot when I arrived that day. We then toured the school and within 3-5 minutes, I instantly knew that this was one of my strongest AVID schools, not just in SLC, but in Utah. Not only did it feel like a learning environment that was based on NO students left behind, but it had a college and career feel to it, like I had not seen. In addition, East was a special place, in that the popular movie—High School Musical was filmed there. In speaking with administration, it was obvious that anything and everything AVID was due to one individual and that is, Stephanie Shelton.   

Stephanie Shelton’s role at East, is AVID Coordinator, AVID Elective Teacher, Debate coach, and many other hats as well. While I visited, there was not a single student that did not smile and speak to her in the hallways. During the day I spent with her, she knew EVERY student’s name and their story (including post-secondary aspirations).

Stephanie’s drive is for ALL students to reach their post-secondary aspirations, using AVID as the vehicle. She is also always very creative in ways to expand and grow AVID in SLC. Just this past year Stephanie coordinated meetings between AVID Management and the Superintendent, Board members and community leaders. This past September, she created a community-centric event called ‘Pathways at the Park’. The intent of this event was to allow the SLC community to see the work being done at East with their AVID system. This was also in place, so students in surrounding neighborhoods could learn more about AVID’s impact. She also had AVID alumni, AVID personnel, and board members to speak. The highlight of the event was having a student panel so that community leaders and families could hear directly from students about how AVID has changed their life and outlook. Stephanie is also very involved with SLC’s United Way (Promise Partnership) initiative. Promise Partnership, unites individuals, non-profits, businesses, and government organizations to transform the educational environment for Utah kids. Their vision is “We work so that all Utah kids are ready for school, better in school, and successful in life”. Thanks to Stephanie’s hard work and determination, Promise Partnership has selected AVID as the possible platform to make this happen in all SLC schools.

After my initial visit (Feb. 2023), and now having interacted with her on a regular basis, Stephanie is one of a kind. She has solved my mystery of how & why these two remaining schools have kept AVID as their platform. Stephanie is ‘Individual Determination’ in action. In speaking with her about the viability of AVID in SLC, she always says, “AVID will not, and cannot go anywhere, there are still students here”.