CARLSBAD — Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club completed its 16th annual AVID Conference for Carlsbad High School students at the Westin Resort earlier in April.
AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a program of Carlsbad middle and high school students targeting those students who would be the first in their families to attend college.
The one-day conference has a mission to expand career options and leadership skills of the students attending.
“The day is modeled after a professional conference with speakers sharing the obstacles they have overcome and the tools they employed to build their success, in an interactive conversation with students,” said Ken Clark, chairman of the Rotary Club’s AVID program. “The goal is to recognize their success in completing the AVID program and to provide them with tools for building their own successful futures.”
The conference provides students with an opportunity to hear from and interact with Rotarians and adult speakers who have interesting histories to share.
One such speaker is Mauricio Berber, a former AVID student who is now the president of RMJ Technologies in Houston, Texas. Berber makes an effort to attend this conference every year to showcase the steps he took and the results he attributed to what he learned during his AVID school days.
Additional conference speakers this year were Ayrton Lopez of Horizon Media, who is also an AVID graduate; Rachel Ivanovich of Easy Life Management; Miguel de Jesus of the College of Business, Cal State San Marcos; Wendy Savalza, a Cal State San Marcos student and AVID graduate; and Walt Waggener of State Farm Insurance.
Jeff Spanier is the AVID coordinator for Carlsbad High School and identified five current AVID students for special honors, including: Floridalma Pablo Pablo, Sarahi Torres, Viviana Granados, Sofia Tamayo and Javier Garcia.
Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club is a service club with a motto of “Service Above Self” and meets every Monday (except Federal holidays) at 12:10 p.m. at the Westin Resort. Visitors are welcome.
