Peer support for students with no college guidance at home

The AVID program at Rocktown High School now has a student leadership foundation. Hamza Al Khafaji helped build it. He worked alongside his AVID teacher and program director, and he now helps lead and run meetings, coordinates peer support, and contributes to shaping the program's direction instead of only participating in it.

The program serves students who do not usually have access to academic guidance or college knowledge at home, he says, and his work has been to strengthen both its structure and its reach.

“You lose yourself when you compare yourself”

Hamza Al Khafaji

His focus has been on taking AVID beyond a class-based support system into something more visible across the school. He is developing larger AVID events that bring together current students and prospective students, especially those who may not yet see AVID as an option for them. The goal, he says, is a stronger culture of mentorship, academic confidence, and college readiness.

He also represented his district through MSAN at a national conference, where the discussions covered educational equity, student voice, and the barriers first-generation and underrepresented students face in academic environments. "That experience pushed me to think beyond my school and toward system level change," he says.

The next piece is a student panel. He is building it now to center student voice, especially from first-generation and underrepresented students, so that school leadership can better understand real barriers: lack of guidance at home, uneven access to rigorous courses, and information gaps around college pathways.

The goal, he says, is to bring student voice "into actual decision making spaces."