ABOUT US

Unlocking the potential of our region's most promising young people, Breakthrough forms a positive learning environment focused on inspiring students and developing teachers. Young people choosing to make a difference and pursue excellence in all areas of life -- We are Breakthrough!

OUR MODEL

Students Teaching Students

At Breakthrough, we believe in the model of “students teaching students” to educate, engage and inspire young people to achieve their academic, college and career goals. Just as underrepresented students in our community are recruited from our city’s public middle schools, outstanding college/high school students are recruited from top schools, both locally and across the nation, to serve as teaching fellows and lead the younger students in classes, team activities and study groups. Middle school students engage well with their near-peer mentors, and the young teaching fellows bring an incredible amount of energy and passion to their classrooms, standing as role models for the younger people they lead.

OUR HISTORY

In 1978, the head of University High School in San Francisco, along with two pioneering teachers, envisioned a summer program that would use the school’s resources to benefit the city at large. Their brainchild was the first Summerbridge program, which had a goal to ensure that each participating student would develop the academic skills and confidence necessary to succeed in academically rigorous high schools. Within two years, they had evolved into the students-teaching-students format that still makes the program unique and effective.

The program’s success led to its expansion across the nation throughout the 1990s and 2000s with each affiliate operating as an independent site. The first site in Texas, Summerbridge Fort Worth, launched in summer 1993, as a partnership between Fort Worth Country Day, Fort Worth ISD and the national program office. Today, there are 25 affiliates across the nation and collectively, they are referred to as the Breakthrough Collaborative, which is still headquartered in the founding San Francisco area.

Evolving the name to Breakthrough (2008) better describes its impact and programmatic breadth, which now operates year-round and spans six years of progressive programming to generate breakthroughs in students’ pathways to college. At the same time, the teacher training experience has grown to encompass guidance from professional educators, development of team building skills and learning to continually assess student progress and lesson effectiveness.

Learn More About Our Host School

Learn More About

The Breakthrough Collaborative