By Virginia Gatica
How prepared are your parents for you to go to college? Are they informed about what to expect? Animo Pat Brown is lucky to have a program that ensures parents from all grade levels are informed about how to prepare their kids for college. This program is called PIQE. PIQE stands for Parent Institute Quality Education and it takes place in school. There are two classes, one taking place in the morning and one in the afternoon. This program gives parents an insight on how to help their kids be on the right road for college. This program is for all parents to come and learn about the lessons taught in High School.
It’s the second year of PIQE at Animo Pat Brown, and there was even a graduation last year were parents received awards. The parents who have young teens attending high school have been happy with the meetings because they love the way this school teaches.
How does PIQE function? In the meetings, parents go to the gym first for just a few minutes. Then, parents are divided into groups with different teachers and classes. For the parents who bring their kids the children are taken to another classroom.
While, the parents are in the class, the children are in a different classroom being supervised by APB students. The principal Mr. Reed said, “ PIQE has been a successful and the parents have told me they love the program”. There is no negative feedback from any of the parents that are part of PIQE.
The reason why Parent Institute Quality Education has been a success is because the amount of parents graduating at the end of the year made it significant. Senior Daniela Pineda stated, “ PIQE is significant because during the 1hr & 30 minutes the parents are aware of what their kids are doing in school.” PIQE has made a change in many parents’ and students’ lives such as helping the students and parents communicate better about their education.
A parent that participated in PIQE talked about what she learned. Noemi Lopez, a parent of a senior said,” Even though the teachers at times are boring we learn as parents the struggle our teens go through on the daily.” This is true because when it comes to grades, D’s do not exist in this school, making it more difficult for the students to pick up their grade. Senior Yuliana Lopez said “I enjoy PIQE because parents get to be more knowledgeable about what us students are doing to be prepared for college.” Many students and parents are proud to have this program. After the parents have graduated from PIQE, they are more advanced in lessons not just about college, but also other subjects taught in school such as english and math.
