TAMPA, Fla. — This week’s A+ Teacher is teaching kids how to read and think critically at a college level.

Sonja Alexandra Lutz is helping Leto High School students get into college with a massive amount of scholarship money. She’s using AVID strategies, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination.

But it’s her positivity, her energy and humility that ensures kids are always her number one priority.

“They are so giving and supportive and positive,” Lutz said of her students. “And they are the best of what we can hope for.

“I just work really hard to make sure my class is a class they want to come to, and the payoff for that is I get to teach these kids. I work 10, 12-hour days sometimes to make sure every lesson plan I teach and everything I do is meaningful for them and the payoff is when I walk in, we’re all happy to see each other.”

That payoff was even more powerful this year as Lutz accomplished the avid mission and then some.

Her class of 35 seniors was rewarded with more than $1 million in college scholarships. 

“She really gets to know who they are and understands all of the things they need to be successful and then creates that space for them,” said Leto High School Principal Larissa McCoy. “And so what I love the most about her is she makes opportunities for them to find themselves on college campuses. She takes them to leadership opportunities and conferences so they can see themselves in those roles, and then like I said for this school year, just this one AVID class alone, for one section a day, she’s helped them secure over a million dollars in college scholarships.”

Leto High is now hoping to expand the avid curriculum to whole campus. Lutz created an online canvass course to support all the teachers with effective strategies and daily lesson plans.

“I have a lot of fun in my job,” Lutz said. “I really do. There’s not a day that I don’t want to come into school because of my students.”