Our Impact

Everything it takes to graduate

Breakthrough is a college degree completion program, and also an aspiration, achievement and dream realization program. Breakthrough provides everything it takes for students from disadvantaged communities to see themselves and their world differently. It shows them how to set goals, build the skills and knowledge they need to realize those goals and gain the confidence to achieve their best vision of what’s possible for themselves.

The most powerful force in society is a child with a dream and the nurturing, knowledge and means to achieve that dream. We cannot afford to waste even one child’s dream. No child can do it alone—Breakthrough surrounds each child with a community that encourages and supports them until they cross the graduation stage.

• At every grade level, our students outpace their peers on critical milestones, including school attendance, grades and college entrance exams.
• On average, 96% of our students graduate from high school early or on time, compared to 88% of the most recent cohort of their Central Texas peers from low-income communities.
• On average, 87% of our students enroll directly in college, compared to 37% of the most recent cohort of their Central Texas peers from low-income communities.
• On average, 60% of Breakthrough students graduate from college within six years, compared to 38% of their peers from low-income communities.
• An independent study confirmed that Breakthrough students, even when compared to students with similar demographics and academic standing, are twice as likely to graduate from college as their peers. 

Outcomes that change lives

• To date, Breakthrough Central Texas has produced 202 college graduates with more than 2,600 following in their footsteps.
• For every additional level of postsecondary education, students earn more financial security. Bachelor’s degree holders earn an estimated $1 million more in lifetime earnings than those with a high school diploma alone and consistently have half the unemployment rate. 
• For first-generation college graduates, median annual income surpasses that of their parents within six years.
• College graduates tend to be healthier, more civically engaged, and have greater capacity for parental involvement.