Our five-week Summer Academy helped students rebound from the pandemic, recover lost learning time, and reconnect to the Breakthrough community. More than 400 middle school students took part, learning from passionate college-aged AmeriCorps summer teaching fellows.

Our small class sizes, student-centered curriculum, and passionate teaching fellows encouraged learning discoveries in the classroom. Students engaged in science projects exploring the health of people and the planet. They conducted waste-audits, studied worm composting through building “worm motels,” experimented with different heat and light sources to create their own solar ovens, and built a living wall with air-purifying plants and upcycled materials. They nurtured their inner creative writer through a language arts curriculum centered around the Writer’s Workshop and self-directed writing projects. In social studies, using primary sources, students studied gentrification, migration of peoples in the US, and Native American and indigenous conceptions of land. And they practiced math concepts using real-life examples and a discussion-based format, using math to view the world. All students joined in reading the student-selected novel, Pet, as part of our community-wide book club. In total, students experienced more than 70 hours of academic instruction. Students also engaged in enriching field trips: They conducted robotics workshops with employees at NI, toured area colleges, visited museums, and went swimming.

Summer Spectacular  

Through our Summer Spectacular Program, Breakthrough offered multiple in-person workshops for 10th and 11th graders to connect with peers, learn and build leadership skills, explore career and postsecondary pathways, and become exposed to a variety of professionals to become more aware of future career options.

In this year’s Presentation of Learning (POL), students took on the role of college recruiters and gave their best pitch to persuade prospective students (volunteers) to attend their campus. Students demonstrated their college knowledge, leadership, and communication skills covered over our two-week program in a concise, refined presentation to adult volunteers and partners. Volunteers had the opportunity to share meaningful feedback and vote for their top pitches.

Senior Institute  

Rising seniors worked closely with advisors to review and familiarize themselves with the college application process, be introduced to postsecondary research tools like Breakthrough’s College Fit Guide, begin the brainstorming and drafting process for college applications and be introduced to the financial aid process.

Incoming Freshmen 

Our College and Career Success team helped our largest-ever graduating class transition to their first semester of college. A key focus was combatting enrollment melt, a phenomenon where students accepted to college do not attend in the fall. Advisors coordinated enrollment steps and provided the encouragement to help students maintain their identity as college goers despite the uncertainty of the moment. In early July, Breakthrough hosted “Thrive Summit,” a week-long virtual retreat where students heard from other Breakthrough college students about their first year in college, connected with representatives from universities around Texas, and engaged in workshops around financial literacy, healthy choices, and what it means to be a first-generation college student.

Sophomores

The College and Career Success Program made concerted advising efforts to encourage student retention and persistence, and, ultimately, prevent the sophomore slump.  The goals this summer were to support students in major and school changes, hold individual sessions to isolate future needs, and assist students in finding additional avenues of student engagement at their university.

This summer, 83 college students interned at companies around Central Texas as part of our Breakthrough Internship Network (BIN). BIN connects a diverse pipeline of well-trained and highly motivated college students to hiring managers and organizations offering full-time, paid professional internships. Interns spent their summer exploring careers, attending professional development workshops and honing in on presentation and communication skills. 

3M
AMD
Atlassian
Harman-Mayes-Sooch Family Fund

Norbert H. Hardner Foundation
HEB
Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation
National Instruments