Breakthrough Miami

As we celebrate our 30th transformative year, Breakthrough Miami stands at an inflection point. For the past three decades, Breakthrough has built and refined an unparalleled 8-year tuition-free academic and social enrichment program to ensure traditionally marginalized young people striving for educational opportunity are supported with rigorous learning environments, near-peer mentors, high expectations, leadership development and advising, to catch their dreams and change the world. Breakthrough has supported over 3,000 Scholars to maximize their potential, and provided unparalleled service leadership experiences to 2,000 Teaching Fellows and 4,000 Volunteers. Grounded by a vision for educational equity and a unique position as bridge-builder across diverse communities, Breakthrough has grown exponentially in reach, impact, and recognition as Miami’s Opportunity Generator.  

At this important milestone year, Breakthrough is poised to elevate and amplify our impact. Building on our experience, we seek to grow our program within and beyond Miami-Dade County to double the number of students served, expanding to six new sites. The Elevate Prize will provide critical seed funds to support strategic planning and growth implementation, as well as the mentorship to build our capacity and maximize our efforts to elevate our reach and impact.

A native Jamaican, I was raised in a home where education, intellectual curiosity, independent thought and leadership were valued and empathy and kindness were intentionally instilled. I was fortunate to have access to schools and other opportunities, and I came to the U.S.to pursue higher education. Growing in various roles over the years, I have been guided and centered by a deep-rooted moral compass and an unwavering optimism in the potential of young people to lead change. Now, with decades of service as an educational leader, I have the gift to serve as CEO of Breakthrough Miami, where my personal purpose and strengths match the organization's mission. My efforts over the past 3-years at Breakthrough have focused on strengthening our capacity to make more breakthroughs possible for more students. Presently, our work provides transformational experiences for 1300 Scholars, 130 Teaching Fellows and 400 Volunteers developing themselves as learners and leaders. It’s deeply fulfilling and exhilarating to prepare a generation of changemakers and lifelong educational advocates who will shape the future. Now, as we honor 30 years at a time of growing inequity and disparity, we need more breakthroughs for more students in more communities across our State.  

As an opportunity generator, Breakthrough addresses the experiences, academic rigor, access, expectations & networks that quietly but powerfully advance whites and youth in higher income brackets, resulting in disparate high school and college completion rates, and lack of access to leadership roles across industries. Established in a city with persistent and deep income disparity, Breakthrough serves students across the fourth-largest school-district in the country. Breakthrough addresses the gaps relating to learning beyond the classroom for marginalized students. Informed by research showing affluent students reach 6th-grade with up to 6,000 more hours of out-of-school learning, Breakthrough offers an 8-year, tuition-free academic & social-enrichment program. Breakthrough leverages our students-teaching-students model and our unique position as an embedded service-learning partnership at independent-schools, to create a transformative space where students with diverse demographic backgrounds are supported to lean in, learn and lead together. 

Scholars commence as rising 5th-graders and are served through highschool and beyond, benefitting from a scaffolding of evidence-based-supports to advance academic progression, college preparation & social/emotional learning:

• Year-round academic programming utilizing a near-peer model and experiential-learning 

• Enrichment, character and leadership development offering experiences to build self-efficacy and citizenship.  

• Advising to assist families in navigating school-choice, ensuring Scholars are in best-fit schools.

Breakthrough Miami’s success is rooted in our students-teaching-students model. During the school-year we train hundreds of Volunteers to lead instruction, electives and mentorship. Each summer we select 17-24 year olds to serve as Teaching Fellows, high-achieving high-school seniors and college students. Aligned with education research which shows that peer mentoring provides learning benefits to both mentors and mentees, our student-to-student model engages outstanding older students as teachers, mentors, and role models in a summer internship that has been named a TopTen service-learning experience by The Princeton Review. Breakthrough has grown to be one of Miami’s major summer internship employers, hiring over 130 Fellows each year. Fellows thrive and grow under the direction and coaching of Breakthrough’s staff and Instructional Coaches. Given that 75% of former Fellows spend part of their careers in education, our model prepares the next generation of diverse educational leaders.

Breakthrough is committed to recruit Teaching Fellows who reflect the demographics of the students we serve, in order to provide positive role models with whom our Scholars can relate. More than 30% of our Fellows are older Breakthrough Scholars/alumni. Among our 2020 Teaching Fellows, 42% were Black, 27% were Latino, and 31% spoke Spanish. 

Helping students to “break through” the social, cultural and economic challenges they face to achieve their potential,  Breakthrough’s strong high school and higher education completion rates translate to economic mobility for entire families and communities. Drawing from 30 years of experience, Breakthrough consistently and uniquely delivers value to improve the upward mobility of underserved students. Our model works. Breakthrough Scholars (1300) enter and succeed in rigorous middle and high school settings (80%), graduate high school on time (100%), develop critical 21st century skills (100%), enter college and complete post-secondary education within 6 years at higher rates (66%) than their peers regardless of socio-economic status. Knowing that human capital is the key raw ingredient of a successful, active and enlightened community, our work delivers tangible impact that propels the entire community forward. 

As we prepare for future growth, Breakthrough has identified and cultivated two new host school sites locally and is beginning work in major metropolitan areas across the State to analyze community needs and existing assets, identify partners and initiate early discussions. Additionally, Breakthrough has pursued State funding to support expansion, and is currently included in the 2021 budget awaiting Governor’s review.