Share Your Story; Breakthrough Miami Letter Campaign

Now is your chance to share your Breakthrough story. Student, teacher, or parent please write a letter about how Breakthrough Miami has had a positive impact on you and/or your child’s life and forward it to our office. We want to hear about your most amazing Breakthrough opportunities and experiences. We will be using these letters to share our work with the greater Miami community, and hopefully secure more funding for our expansion efforts.

The Vision: Expanding Breakthrough

In the fall of 2007, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation committed $3.25 million over 5 years to support the expansion of Breakthrough Miami to serve over 1000 students by 2012.

Students Served

Breakthrough Miami served a total of 550 students in the summer of 2010, and 82 high school and college teaching interns, for a total of 632 students.

Breakthrough Miami Sites

• Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart (Coconut Grove, FL)
• Coral Gables Senior High School (Coral Gables, FL)
• The Cushman School (Miami, FL)
• Doctors Charter School (Miami Shores, FL)
• Ransom Everglades School (Coconut Grove, FL)

Please Address Letters to: Breakthrough Miami

Please send by postal service to:

Attention: Joanne Messing
Development Director
Breakthrough Miami
3575 Main Highway
Miami, Florida 33133

Or by Email: jmessing@breakthroughmiami.org

The Case Against Summer Vacation

The Case Against Summer Vacation
Dull summers take a steep toll, as researchers have been documenting for more than a century. Deprived of healthy stimulation, millions of low-income kids lose a significant amount of what they learn during the school year. Call it "summer learning loss," as the academics do, or "the summer slide," but by any name summer vacation is among the most pernicious, if least acknowledgedcauses of achievement gaps in America's schools.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2005654,00.html#ixzz0yD0XGoVW

Breakthrough Miami 2010 Celebration Slideshow.mov

Breakthrough Miami POL

FACES; Photos of Breakthrough's 2010 Summer Institute

Breakthrough Miami Moments Vol.1 Issue 4, Summer Wrap-Up

Passion – enthusiasm – creativity – love of learning – relationships – dreams - achievement - inspiring - mentoring - encouragement - support - these are the words that come to mind when I think about our Amazing Breakthrough Miami Summer Institute. We have had six weeks of helping our students build skills and confidence to help them succeed in their respective schools and to promote the love of learning. We have had college and high school interns from all over the United States being mentors and role models for our students. It really has been simply an Amazing Summer! I deeply thank all the sites, Ransom Middle, Carrollton, Doctors Charter, Cushman, Coral Gables Senior High, for hosting our program this summer and all those who make Breakthrough Miami a reality with your contribution, your support, and your love.

Alicia Rodriguez Bower
Executive Director

Breakthrough Miami serves 550 students at 5 sites



Breakthrough Miami served a total of 550 students this summer, including 81 high school and college teaching interns. 308 of the total student population were new to the program and 242 were returning for their 2nd and 3rd year. As the largest program in the Breakthrough Collaborative, our unique cluster model served students at Doctors Charter and Ransom Everglades. Students are recruited from public schools from all over the district and attend a six-week academic institute. Three additional sites were added this summer at the Cushman School, Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart, and Coral Gables Senior High. The program plans to open two additional sites next summer in the hopes of serving over 750 students.

Peacock Foundation grants Breakthrough Miami $35, 000



Breakthrough Miami has been generously granted $35,000 to support direct program and operating costs: student transportation, curriculum resources, teacher training, supplies, college tours, field trips and enrichment.

Established by Henry B. Peacock, Jr. in 1947, the mission of Peacock Foundation, Inc. is to enhance and promote the good health and well being of children, families, and underprivileged persons in Southeast Florida, through contributions, gifts, and grants to eligible nonprofit organizations.

We sincerely thank Peacock Foundation for their generous gift!

To make a gift of any amount to Breakthrough Miami, please contact our Development Director, Joanne Messing at 305.460.2116 or by email at joanne.messing@gmail.com.

Breakthrough Scholar, Zena Stephens, spearheads Generation Outreach

Feeling the heat of Atlanta’s spring sun, I quickly increased the turnover of my legs, leading my father and cousin. As we passed a building with people who appeared homeless outside I heard my father ask exactly what kind of building it was. My cousin, a resident of Atlanta, answered, “a drug rehabilitation center.” I slowed down my pace, glaring across the street at the individuals sitting along the stumps and sidewalks, long enough to inhale the scent of desperation. That scent sunk deeper into my skin as I continued my route to the car while ideas raced through my mind, speeding like the Nascars at the Daytona 500. Half way to the car the ideas began to take shape, and I realized that there had to be a change. Beyond addiction issues laid problems often faced throughout the world, all apparent in my community. After this epiphany I understood that somebody had to do something, and that somebody would be me.

Repeatedly calling my best friend Paige’s phone for the following two hours, I finally received an answer. I explained my experience with her and presented the opportunity for us to form our own organization to address the various issues observed in the typical lives of members of our community. It was at that moment that Team G.O, Generation Outreach, was birthed. Our mission is to provide life altering opportunities, built on the principles of Civic Engagement. We are dedicated to enhancing the lives of underprivileged individuals through continuous fundraising and community service. By seeking aid from the community to better the community, we wish to assemble a tight-knit bond within the area. To ensure a long term improvement of addressed issues, we will educate the community at each event held and supply a solution to decrease the problem at that current concentration point.

The first project for this new-born organization is called “When I Grow Up.” Its purpose is to sponsor chosen students from Coconut Grove Elementary, George Washington Carver Elementary, and Frances Tucker Elementary School with their school supplies for the 2010-2011 school year. Each selected candidate will display need-base, but also academic excellence. This summer will be one full of excitement and events. If you wish to gain any more information about our organization feel free to contact us at teamgo10@gmail.com or (305)431-9840/ (786)488-6070.

Written By
Zena Stephens