Cristabel Tan ’08 writes:
“Breakthrough Collaborative is a national non-profit that increases educational opportunity for high-potential, low-income middle school students and inspires outstanding college and high school students to pursue careers in education.
Consistently featured as a Top Ten Internship by the Princeton Review, Breakthrough’s innovative Students Teaching Students model partners middle-school students with college and high school students who serve as teachers, role models and mentors, providing real-life examples that it’s ‘cool to be smart’. Breakthrough boasts a proven ripple effect of positive results: 82% of Breakthrough student alumni are accepted to college preparatory programs and 72% of Breakthrough teachers, many of whom were Breakthrough students, go on to pursue professional careers in education.
Drawn from the public school system, 89% of Breakthrough’s students are students of color and 65% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs. English is a second language for 27% of our students, and most will be the first in their family to attend college.
Students commit to a minimum of two years of tuition-free intensive six-week summer sessions and after-school programs in which they take classes in core academic subjects, and participate in elective courses ranging from astronomy to African-American literature. Breakthrough’s classes are rigorous and small (a maximum 4:1 student to teacher ratio) and full participation is expected of every student. Breakthrough was founded in San Francisco in 1978 as Summerbridge and serves more than 2,500 middle school students and trains 700 college and high school students as teachers in 34 Breakthrough sites across the U.S. and in Hong Kong.
Come to our Info Session to find out more about how you can
a) be on the front line of battling the inequalities that the American public school system creates
b) take the first step in pursuing a career in education
c) change lives: both of the kids you’ll be teaching, and your own–this may be one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, but it will also definitely be the most rewarding.
The site Director from Breakthrough New Haven will be at the info session, as well as former teachers–all of whom can answer questions about Breakthrough. We will also be tabling at Usdan on Monday from 12-2.30pm, so come talk to us! For extra info, and the Online Application, visit: www.teachbreakthroughs.org or www.breakthroughcollaborative.org
If you can’t attend the Info Session, feel free to e-mail the Campus Recruiters Bin (bshen@wes) or Cristabel (ctan@wes) with any questions, or if you’d like to set up an appointment to just sit and chat. We WANT to hear from you!”
When: Wed, Nov 28, 6pm
Where: PAC 001
Why: Because the current American education system ensures that students get left behind, and we want to fight this structural inequality!