GGUSD AVID Students Awarded College Scholarships at Senior Standout Event

AVID Senior Standouts

Eighteen AVID seniors from Garden Grove Unified School District (GGUSD) were awarded more than $156,000 in college scholarships during the 2024 AVID Senior Standout Recognition and Scholarship Presentation hosted on April 15 by the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE).  The event recognizes impressive senior standout students who are part of the AVID program at high schools across Orange County. Garden Grove High School student Henry Vu earned the prestigious honor of providing opening remarks at the event.

“The AVID program provides tremendous opportunities for our students and we love celebrating these top AVID scholars who are well-equipped for lifelong success,” said GGUSD Board of Education Trustee Bob Harden. “These scholarships can be life changing and help make college dreams a reality.”

Senior standout students from GGUSD included Sky Bui, Bolsa Grande High School; Henry Vu, Garden Grove High School; Tawnie Ngo, La Quinta High School, Kimberly Balbuena, Los Amigos High School; Matthew Do, Pacifica High School; An Bui-Phan, Rancho Alamitos High School; and Tan Nguyen, Santiago High School.

Students who received scholarships ranging from $1,500 to $20,000 include Benjelee Nguyen, Adrian Pineda, and Sky Bui from Bolsa Grande High School; Leah Cao, Joshua Ramos, and Henry Vu from Garden Grove High School; Tawnie Ngo and Tam Nguyen from La Quinta High School; Kimberly Balbuena from Los Amigos High School; Megan Stratton, Eva Valenzuela, Jocelyn Le, Koi Pham, and Matthew Do from Pacifica High School; Tommy Nguyen and An Bui-Phan from Rancho Alamitos High School; and Tan Nguyen from Santiago High School.

GGUSD is a leader in college readiness and outperforms the county and state in the number of high school seniors completing rigorous college entrance exams, due in large part, to the widespread implementation of AVID across the district. Alamitos Intermediate School, Doig Intermediate School and Santiago High School have been named national demonstration schools by the AVID program. GGUSD continues to consistently infuse AVID strategies and opportunities at the elementary and secondary levels while offering the AVID elective at all intermediate and high school sites.