San Francisco, California

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Overview and Mission: Founded in San Francisco in 1978, Breakthrough Collaborative is a national nonprofit with a mission to increase educational opportunity for high-potential, disadvantaged middle school students and to inspire outstanding college and high school students to pursue careers in education.

The Breakthrough Program: Breakthrough’s innovative students-teaching-students model pairs middle school students with college and high school student mentors who serve as teachers and role models and provide real-life examples that it’s “cool to be smart.” Full-time Breakthrough staff members cultivate relationships with the students, their families and their public-school teachers, counselors and principals to create a network of support for each individual student from middle school through college enrollment.

The Breakthrough experience begins with an intensive six-week summer program that includes rigorous academics focusing on math and literacy. Enrichment programs, including creative art, experiential learning and public speaking opportunities, complement the academics. Students attend all-day classes five days a week and average more than two hours of homework each night. During the school year, students attend after-school and Saturday sessions.

Each year, outstanding high school and college students are trained as Breakthrough teachers, receiving extensive support and supervision from professional teachers. Since the majority of Breakthrough teachers are students of color themselves (59% vs. 13.5% of teachers in the public school system, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 2001), Breakthrough teachers make strong connections with their students and function as positive role models and mentors.

Statistics: Each year, Breakthrough serves more than 2,500 middle school students, provides college readiness programming to 1,160 high school students, and trains 700 college and high school students as teachers in 34 Breakthrough sites in 28 cities across the country and in Hong Kong. Since its inception, Breakthrough has served more than 14,000 youth.
• 86% of Breakthrough’s students are students of color.
• 66% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs.
• English is a second language for 33% of Breakthrough students.
• 61% will be the first in their family to attend college.

Results: More than 80% of Breakthrough students are accepted to college preparatory programs, which compares to an average of 13% of students from the same socioeconomic background. 72% of Breakthrough teachers, many of whom were Breakthrough students, go on to pursue careers in education.

Awards: Breakthrough is winner of the prestigious Klingenstein Leadership Award by the Klingenstein Center of Teachers College, Columbia University and the esteemed Excellence in Summer Learning Award by Johns Hopkins University. Repeatedly featured by The Princeton Review as a Top Ten Internship, Breakthrough’s unique Students Teaching Students model attracts a diverse corps of outstanding college and high school students to serve as teachers, role models and mentors. Two of the 32 Rhodes Scholars named in 2007 are former Breakthrough teachers.
Our 35 Breakthrough Site Locations: Atlanta, Austin, Boca Raton, Cambridge, Cincinnati, Denver(2), Fort Lauderdale, Fort Worth, Hong Kong (2), Houston, Long Island, Manchester, Miami(3), Minneapolis, New Haven, New Orleans, New York, Norfolk, Philadelphia(3), Pittsburgh, Providence, Sacramento, St. Paul, San Francisco(2), San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Fe, Washington D.C.

Five Year Growth Goal: By the year 2012, Breakthrough will double the number of students it serves annually by bringing its program to new communities and expanding existing sites to serve more students.

www.breakthroughcollaborative.org