UTPB earns honor for AVID program

It's just another feather in the cap of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

UTPB’s work in developing the Advancement Via Individual Determination program for freshmen students grabbed the attention of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the board gave the university a special “Recognition of Excellence” award at its meeting Thursday.

AVID has been used by the Ector County Independent School District for several years and is making a difference now in the lives of college students.

“It’s just amazing, and the most positive thing for us and recognition of Dr. David Watts being proactive and trying to solve a problem before we’re forced to do so,” lecturer and freshman seminar instructor Lanita Akins said. The University of Texas of the Permian Basin is the only university in Texas with an AVID component.

Two of the freshman seminar classes have included AVID components, such as taking good notes and being organized.

Teachers say they have already noticed a difference in attitude by AVID students, such as those students sitting in the front row. Tools given to students to help them succeed not just in school but in life are invaluable.

Watts and other university representatives presented information on the program to the coordinating board, which gave UTPB a $25,000 unsolicited grant to start the pilot AVID course.

Watts said he hopes to expand AVID to all freshmen seminar sections.

“It has the potential to impact success for all freshmen students, and we want them to come back as sophomores and graduate,” Watts said.

Watts, in typical fashion, was modest about the accolades and credits ECISD as leading the way for AVID in Odessa. He said he is glad AVID approved the idea even without an established college curriculum yet.

When Watts went before the board Thursday, he was joined by AVID Executive Director Jim Nelson, state AVID Director Eileen Friou and UTPB senior Jonathan Grant Brown, an AVID “veteran.” For over an hour, these panelists led the members of the Coordinating Board through the statistics and needs of the very students AVID targets.

Watts and Nelson both underscored the needs for AVID.

“I think AVID is one of the ways we can take students where we find them and bring them to where they need to be,” Watts told the board.

Nelson echoed Watts.

“We have become a college-going culture, but we’ve yet to become a college-ready culture,” Nelson said.
UTPB is the only university in the country with an AVID component.

Here’s hoping the program proves as successful at UTPB as it has at ECISD.