Poudre School District’s AVID program – Advancement Via Individual Determination – will receive a $30,000 grant from the Bohemian Foundation’s Pharos Fund in its spring 2012 funding cycle.
The Fort Collins-based foundation announced nearly $500,000 in grants to 33 Northern Colorado nonprofits on Thursday. The Pharos Fund awards ranged from $2,000 to $30,000.
The AVID program addresses the needs of students in the “academic middle.” Wellington Middle School Principal Dr. Alicia Durand, PSD’s AVID director, said those are the 85 percent of students who have the initiative to succeed in college but may believe that attending college is not a possibility.
“The formula is simple: Raise expectations of students and, with the AVID support system in place, they will rise to the challenge,” Durand said. “We have programs for the higher end – AP, IB, Gifted/Talented, Honors – and we have programs for special education and those who are at risk. The group that was not a priority was the middle, which is a large group. AVID works with that student and does it very well.”
Wellington Middle School also received a $12,000 grant for Eagles After Hours transportation. Cache la Poudre Middle School received $15,000 for transportation for its Extended Time program, and Lincoln IB World Middle School received $20,000 for its Open Door Project.
The Fort Collins Rotary Club will also help support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education in all PSD middle schools with a $2,400 Pharos Fund grant.
To see the complete list of recipients, go to the Pharos Fund page at www.bohemianfoundation.org/Pharos-Fund-Recipients.