Students at Queen Creek Middle School are preparing for high school, college and their future careers in the AVID program.
AVID stands for "achievement via individual determination".
Eighth-grade students hear from various professionals working in different career fields and look ahead at different lines of work that might spark their interest.
In the session ABC15 was invited to attend, kids had a lecture from a Valley trauma surgeon.
The surgeon explained to the class why he is passionate about his work, how he chose that career and how many years of schooling it took to complete.
"It showed me that you can be what you want," said eighth-grader Cameron Lewis. "You just have to try your best."
The surgeon emphasized to the children that they need to start planning immediately and get their grades up.
"When they go into high school they have that 'deer in the headlights' look," said AVID teacher Matthew Patriquin. "Hopefully when they come out of our AVID elective and AVID classes they have those tools and those strategies that when they sit down in their honors classes they will be successful."
