Edgewater – In a science classroom at Jefferson High School, two dozen high-energy students are studying the average lifetime earnings of people possessing only a high school diploma, compared with those having higher-education degrees.
Amid giggles and jokes, they punch figures into calculators and jot answers on worksheets titled “The Value of a College Education.” Teacher Courtney Trujillo draws their attention to the benefit of getting a two-year associate’s degree over just a diploma – $300,000 over a lifetime.
She puts it in terms they can appreciate. “That’s a house,” she says. “A very nice house.”
These students are the first in the Jefferson County School District to participate in Advancement Via Individual Determination, a nationally recognized program designed to steer middle- of-the-road students into college.
District officials this year committed nearly $25,000 to Jefferson High to support the project – from materials to teacher training – with the hope that these students will see college as not only a possibility but an expectation.
AVID is used in about 2,300 middle and high schools in 36 states. Nationally, 94 percent of the students who enroll in the four-year high school program go on to college.
Ninth-grader Ben Cendejas hopes to be one of them. He was focused on going into the Air Force and didn’t think about college, he said. But the salary difference for a person with a high school diploma versus a college degree is a motivator, he said.
“It’s a lot of money,” said the 14-year-old, who now dreams of going to the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-954-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
