AVID Adventures: LPS AVID students gain career insights during TCA tours

March 10, 2025

Kimberly and Stetson wore awestruck expressions on their faces as they toured The Career Academy with their fellow middle school classmates this winter.
 
The two seventh graders joined dozens of Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) students from Mickle and Park on special preview tours of TCA’s building. They caught glimpses of culinary arts kitchens, walked by welding classrooms and learned how to tie tourniquets from health sciences students. Both said they were glad they could go on the enlightening field trip.
 
“I think it’s a really great experience to be here and see what you can do in the future,” Kimberly said.
 
“This school’s amazing,” Stetson said. “I would definitely suggest going here. I love that we could get a tour.”
 
Valerie Moser-Bergo said she hoped the tours would inspire everyone who attended. Moser-Bergo is TCA’s school and career counselor and helped organize the visits alongside TCA Instructional Coordinator Jocelyn Crabtree. TCA students and representatives provided in-depth knowledge about the campus to AVID seventh graders from Park, Mickle, Lefler, Culler, Goodrich, Dawes and Schoo.
 
“The importance of middle school visits is to ignite curiosity and generate interest,” Moser-Bergo said. “As a former middle school counselor, sometimes showing what options are available in school can generate some hope and rationale for why school is important.”
 
Park teacher Claudia Perales-Garcia and Mickle teacher Liz Sundberg watched their students learn more about careers ranging from biology to business. Both lead AVID groups at their buildings and help them become more aware of potential jobs. They said placing TCA on their educational radar was important.
 
“Providing them with a unique field trip experience such as TCA provides AVID students with new opportunities they had no idea were available to them,” Perales-Garcia said. “It allows them to envision their future beyond high school, creating a sense of direction and opening their minds to new careers.”
 
“It’s very important to provide tours to places like TCA for AVID students because one of the main missions of AVID is to provide opportunity knowledge,” Sundberg said. “Introducing students to various educational paths they have the option for in LPS is providing them opportunity knowledge they might not otherwise pursue. Sometimes all you need is someone in your corner showing you what options you have.”
 
The tours also gave TCA ambassadors a chance to pave new leadership avenues. Grace, Mila and Faith joined multiple other high school students who spoke during the day. Moser-Bergo said the juniors and seniors have become valuable mentors for younger students.
 
“The TCA ambassadors are a group I have worked hard to create to not just help TCA but also to offer opportunities for leadership, especially for something students are passionate about,” Moser-Bergo said. “It all comes from a place of genuine love for their pathway and connections they have at TCA.”
 
Grace is a junior at East High School and is enrolled in TCA’s human services pathway. She is interested in becoming a psychiatrist after graduating from college. She said being a TCA ambassador this year has been a fun experience.
 
“One of the teachers came into our class and was talking about it, and it sounded really interesting,” Grace said. “I enjoy talking to younger kids, and I’m really glad I did TCA. I think it would be great if more people did it and found out about it.”
 
Mila and Faith shared similar enthusiasm as they stood in front of a health sciences classroom. Mila held out a prosthetic arm as Faith showed students how to wrap a tourniquet around it. The two East seniors fielded many excited questions from tour groups throughout the morning.
 
“I just love the general interaction,” Faith said. “The kids want to learn more about it and understand more about it. We have a lot that we love to talk about when it comes to TCA, and getting to teach them about that is really interesting.”
 
“I’ve had a really good experience here and have had a lot of hands-on opportunities, and being able to show other people what they could potentially get into is fun,” Mila said. “I think that’s really awesome.”
 
All three said they were impressed with the curiosity the seventh graders showed. Many students like Kimberly wanted to become nurses, and they asked Mila and Faith about their classes, what jobs they wanted to have and why they liked health sciences. Multiple other students were interested in human sciences, and they gave Grace a chance to describe her career pathway to them.
 
“They’ve had really good questions,” Grace said. “They asked about if you could become a counselor or therapist, and one asked about all of the different kinds of therapists you could be. It was really fun to help them out.”
 
Sundberg said she felt the TCA tours would make long-lasting impacts on everyone in AVID classes.
 
“When exposed to these kinds of experiences, students sometimes see themselves taking a different or unique route to graduating high school and gaining college or career experience while working towards their high school diploma,” Sundberg said. “It can meet the needs of various students in a lot of different situations.”
 
Learn more about The Career Academy at home.lps.org/tca/ and AVID programs in LPS at home.lps.org/avid/.
 
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