While roughly 1 of every 2 high-income students in the United States will graduate from college, only 1 in 10 of their low-income peers can say the same. Strikingly, even low-income students with above-average test scores have a college graduation rate lower than more affluent classmates with lower test scores (National Center for Education Statistics). Regionally, only 30 percent of socioeconomically disadvantaged students in Orange County graduate high school with the A-G courses needed to apply to public colleges in California.
Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano is determined to reverse this trend and we are passionately working to end inter-generational poverty in our community. A college degree can end poverty in a family line forever (Bureau of Labor Statistics). We realize the stakes are too high for anything other than an extraordinary effort. Through rigorous summer and school-year programs, we increase educational opportunities for motivated, students from underrepresented backgrounds.
During the summer, a supportive community sustains Breakthrough seventh through ninth grade students on their path to college. We work hard to not only avoid the all-too-common “summer slide,” but to accelerate our students’ learning over the summer. Students engage in academically rigorous coursework taught by high school and college students from across the country that attend prestigious universities such as Brown University, Dartmouth College, UC Berkeley, and Columbia University. Teaching Fellows receive intensive teacher training and ongoing support from mentor teachers, who are professional teachers from local schools.
