Freshmen at Hillcrest High School are walking into Amy McNutt’s office, she says, and begging to join AVID — a new program that would require them to work harder, study more often, and dedicate time after school simply to brainstorm.

“That’s a good thing,” says McNutt, Hillcrest’s ninth-grade coordinator.

Hillcrest launched AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) at the beginning of the school year and already has enrolled 50 freshmen with a handful of others on a waiting list. The nationwide program targets students from low-income backgrounds who can handle rigorous coursework but are falling short of their potential. The goal is for them to set their sights on a four-year university.

“Many of them have families where no one has gone to college, so they don’t see it in their future,” says Ann Caldwell, Hillcrest’s AVID coordinator. “They can’t even imagine it.”

The students must enroll in at least one pre-advanced placement course as well as the AVID elective course, which Caldwell teaches. There they develop skills they will need once they get to college, such as taking notes in a Cornell University format and discussing ideas in an open forum. The forums, called “Socratic seminars,” are the students’ favorite, Caldwell says. A recent seminar required each of them to pick out the most important phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance and make a case for it.

The AVID students carry around special binders that are already being viewed as badges of honor, McNutt says. They know it’s a privilege to get into the program and don’t want to lose their spots.

“Some of my students were missing assignments, and I told them, ‘I’m going to tell your AVID teacher.’ Their mouths dropped open,” says Pamela Bissic, a pre-AP biology teacher. “It’s another form of accountability.”

The freshmen currently enrolled in AVID are expected to stick with the program all the way through high school. As they advance, the program will expand to the incoming freshman class. McNutt says a few Hillcrest staff members raised eyebrows when they found out that freshmen would be learning what college admission officers want to see on their applications, but she says ninth-graders are not too young to start thinking about such things. It needs to be “drilled into their heads,” she says.

Caldwell agrees.

“You can’t wait until you’re a senior to decide you’re going to do it. You’re got to lay the groundwork as a ninth-grader and all the way up.”