MARYSVILLE – If no one in your family has ever gone to college you might think you’re dreaming the impossible dream.

But thanks to AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, four Marysville Getchell High School seniors are seeing their dreams come true.

Stephanie Ramirez has been accepted to Penn State, Susanna Gaona to Central Washington and the University of New Haven, Maria Gonzales to Washington State and Mackenzie Gagnon to Central and Western Washington.

The four, who all started AVID as freshmen, were not always avid scholars.

“I didn’t really care about school,” Ramirez said.

Because no one in her family had gone to college, she didn’t know what it would take, and she didn’t think she could do it anyway.

But by learning and practicing AVID study habits, “It changed my mindset and helped my perspective.”

She started gaining confidence “seeing my grade trend” upward.

When a grade did slip, like in math every year, she said, she attends tutorials to bring her grade back up.

Ramirez, who plans a career in sports journalism, said she’s trying to inspire her brother to go to college, but he’s 15 “and makes his own decisions.”

Gonzalez wants to set a good example, too, for her three younger brothers, but she calls them “rebels.”

She said she had a rough start in high school, too, only going because it’s required.

“I didn’t have a sense of what I wanted,” she said.

Gonzalez, who wants to be an architect, said AVID helped her focus and be organized. It helped her establish a routine so that she could remember information better. Study sessions where students helped each other also improved her knowledge.

Gaona, who plans a career in law enforcement, never thought she could go to a big university.

“I thought that was for really, really smart people,” she said, adding at best she thought she might attend Everett Community College.

She was encouraged by a former English teacher to take AVID because it would help her academically and with motivation.

“It also provided emotional support and opportunities to pursue my dreams,” she said.

Gaona said AVID provides a template to success, from grade checks to Saturday school to catch up to checking organizational binders, which is a big part of their grade.

Gaona is undecided on the two schools that have accepted her. At Central she would be closer to home and would take psychology or sociology. But New Haven is more what she wants to do. She likes that it’s closer to Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA and that it’s “hands-on.”

Meanwhile, with five older siblings, Gagnon said while college was talked about, she didn’t think it was a reality.

“No one had done it before,” she said. “I didn’t see how I could do it.”

Learning content in school was never hard for her, she just didn’t want to do the work. Middle school teachers would tell her she’s a bright student, and she needed to get her act together.

When she started high school, health teacher Andrea France asked her, “Why aren’t you in AVID?”

Gagnon’s mom repeated, “Yea, why aren’t you in AVID?”

She then transferred into the class, but her grades still dropped because she wasn’t doing the work.

Gagnon, who eventually wants to be a surgeon after going to medical school at Harvard, said she finally started using AVID techniques when she was a sophomore and started having success.

“You have to want to use them,” she said.

France said she practically hand-picked the four girls when she started the AVID class four years ago.

“I hunted them down,” she joked, adding they were all in her health class.

She said she is proud having watched them grow so much. AVID has inspired them to get involved in other activities, such as sports, leadership, community service, and more.

“It’s given them the opportunity to bloom,” she said.

France said if it wasn’t for Principal Shawn Stephenson stepping up in 2011, all this might not have happened. All of the schools were offered AVID, but he was the only one who took it on. It’s becoming so popular it’s now in all sixth- through 12th grades, and grade schools are even learning some of it. It’s also one of the four main focus goals for the district this year.

France said it’s going to be hard to watch this year’s class of 17 AVID students graduate, but it will be exciting, too.

“It’s a blessing, like they’re your kids. There have been a lot of teary eyes already,” she said. “But it’s going to change the trajectory of their whole family.”