Motivational learning

Christine Carrillo

While most classes teach a specific curriculum, the Advancement

Via Individual Determination course at Estancia High School tries to

teach students an academic lifestyle.

A lifestyle that will get the high school students into college.

More importantly, how to become successful college students.

“I’m doing more than the average teacher. You guys need to do more

than the average student,” Bob Sterling said to his ninth-grade

students Friday morning in his daily attempt to inspire them. “If you

want to go to college, you have to start acting like a college

student now.”

After sitting through a motivational speech on college life, the

class broke up into five different groups. With the aid of five

student mentors from UC Irvine, each group began studying the world

of criminology.

“Part of the program is the hands-on approach to criminology,”

said Johnny Nhan, a coordinator for UCI’s criminology outreach

program.

That they’re learning about criminology from college students

helps reinforce the reality of college life, he added.

“They could probably relate to them better because college is not

that far off,” he said.

The students enrolled in the course are considered to be “in the

middle” as far as academics go and would be the first in their

families to attend college.

The class tries to motivate the students through the aid of guest

speakers and, in Friday’s case, college mentors to give them a taste

of the careers lie before them.

From issues of Miranda rights to the allowance of victim

testimonies and from prosecutor to defense attorney, each student

worked closely with the assigned UCI mentor to decipher the logistics

of different scenarios.

“It was fun because we got to guess who the people were and how

they worked on the cases,” said Mary Jane Beckett, who was surprised

to discover that there were different types of witnesses. “I learned

a lot.”

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot

education writer Christine Carrillo visits a campus in the

Newport-Mesa area and writes about her experience.