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Breakthrough Collaborative Receives Excellence in Summer Learning Award from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Summer Learning
SAN FRANCISCO-(Business Wire)-April 11, 2007 - Breakthrough Collaborative, a Bay Area-based national non-profit that increases educational opportunity for high-potential, low-income middle school students, together with its local Pittsburgh site, will receive the 2007 Excellence in Summer Learning Award from the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University's School of Education. Breakthrough will be recognized during the Center's national conference April 18-20, at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel.
"This award validates what Breakthrough has been doing for almost 30 years - furthering educational opportunities with our intensive summer program," said Laura Pochop, Executive Director of Breakthrough. "Johns Hopkins is one of the most respected educational institutions in the country and to be recognized both nationally and locally by them is a privilege and honor."
John Hopkins' Center for Summer Learning Excellence in Summer Learning Award recognizes summer programs that demonstrate excellence in accelerating academic achievement and promoting positive development for young people. The award is given annually, based on an application and interview process that elicits information on a program's history, mission, goals, operations, management, staff development, partnerships, results and sustainability. The Excellence in Summer Learning Award seeks to find and draw national attention to exemplary programs providing high-quality summer learning experiences for youth.
"Our 2007 award winners exemplify the type of high-quality summer learning experiences that should be accessible to all young people," said Ron Fairchild, Executive Director of the Center.
Breakthrough's mission is to launch low-income middle school students on the road to college and to inspire their high school and college-aged teachers to pursue careers in education. By increasing educational opportunities for high-potential middle school students from low-income households and inspiring student teachers to pursue careers in education, Breakthrough has positively impacted the lives of more than 10,000 young people.
The key to Breakthrough's success is the students teaching students model. The college and high school students who teach Breakthrough's middle school students are more than teachers; they are role models and mentors. Often drawn from the same communities as the students, Breakthrough teachers are examples that the skills they teach lead to success.
"Two of our Breakthrough teachers, Brian Johnsrud from Norfolk and Joshua Billings from Cambridge, were recently named 2007 Rhodes scholars," said Pochop. "An extraordinary accomplishment, both students credit their drive for educational excellence to the summers they spent teaching at Breakthrough. It's so gratifying to see the way that our program changes young peoples' lives."
Breakthrough's site in Pittsburgh will also receive the Excellence in Summer Learning Award for serving low-income middle school students from the Greater Pittsburgh region for the last 13 summers. Like all Breakthrough sites, Pittsburgh provides a tuition-free, intensive summer program and participants are admitted based on academic ability and limited opportunity. Students take classes in mathematics, language arts, wellness and public speaking. Students and their families are supported through financial aid and career development workshops. Ninety-two percent of the students in Breakthrough's Pittsburgh site graduate from high school and 80 percent have enrolled in college, which is double the rate of their comparable peers.
"We're extremely proud of the determination and performance of our students, who dream of graduating from high school and continuing their education in college," said Pochop. "75% of our students nationwide will be the first in their families to graduate from college, which, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, is instrumental in ending the poverty in their family lines forever."
Through intensive summer sessions, after-school tutoring, weekend enrichment opportunities, and individual counseling, Breakthrough ensures that high-potential students begin the road to college successfully in middle school. Founded in San Francisco in 1978, Breakthrough serves more than 2,200 middle school students annually and employs 700 college and high school students as middle school teachers in 28 locations across the U.S. More than 80% of Breakthrough's students nationwide are accepted to college-preparatory high schools. Visit www.breakthroughcollaborative.org
