Ransom Everglades Admission Open House

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 3:30 PM

Our Fall Open House is for those candidates interested in grades 6,7,and 8.

Ransom Everglades Upper School Campus
3575 Main Highway in Coconut Grove

Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart Admissions Showcase

Thursday,October 14, 2010
Showcase for all grades. Families interested in attending Carrollton should attend at 9:00 a.m.

Melissa Rodriguez Assembly Hall (All Female)
Duchesne Campus
3645 Main Highway
Location: Melissa Rodriguez Assembly Hall

Waiting For Superman

For a nation that proudly declared it would leave no child behind, America continues to do so at alarming rates. Despite increased spending and politicians’ promises, our buckling public—education system, once the best in the world, routinely forsakes the education of millions of children. Oscar®—winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH) reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN.” As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop—out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems. However, embracing the belief that good teachers make good schools, Guggenheim offers hope by exploring innovative approaches taken by education reformers and charter schools that have—in reshaping the culture—refused to leave their students behind.

To watch the movie trailer simply copy and paste the link below into your web browser. http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi7669529/

Children's Movement of Florida Rally on Sept.29

Attend the Children's Movement of Florida Rally Sept. 29
Get on board with the Children's Movement of Florida and don't miss the "Milk Party Rally" at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium on Wednesday, Sept. 29 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, 2901 W. Flagler Street. Free and open to all, the rally features entertainment, speakers, take-home gifts and refreshments (milk and cookies, of course!).

The citizen-led, non-partisan Children's Movement of Florida is staging rallies around the state - 15 in all - to bring attention to the lack of funding and policy support for children in our state. Come out Sept. 29, and stand up for children! Visit the Children's Movement of Florida to find out more.

School Year Program - Miami City Ballet

Features classical and contemporary works with beautiful sets and costumes that appeal to audiences of all ages and tastes. Programming includes Jerome Robbins' tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, Twyla Tharp's Baker's Dozen, Paul Taylor's most powerful transient masterpiece, and John Cranko's Romeo & Juliet.

October 15-17
Decemeber 17-19, 21-23
January 7-9
February 11-13
March 25-27

Tickets are first come first serve, but please only reserve tickets if you will be able to attend the show.

Students that are interested in taking part in this activity should call Dwanita Fields to make reservations as spots are limited.

Dwanita Fields,
305-460-8928
dwanita@breakthroughmiami.org

School Year Program - Island Care Project

Students will take a short boat ride to Island E in Biscayne Bay to assist in keeping the island clean and making it into a public park. Students can earn community service hours.

October 28th, 2010
November 18th, 2010
December 16th, 2010
January 27th, 2011
February 24th, 2011
March 24th, 2011
April 14th, 2011

This activity takes place 4:00 pm - 6:00pm. Students should arrive at the Breakthrough office located at the Ransom Everglades Upper School at 3:30 pm.

Students that are interested in taking part in this activity should call Dwanita Fields to make reservations as spots are limited.

Dwanita Fields,
305-460-8928
dwanita@breakthroughmiami.org

School Year Program - Miami Science Museum

Students will participate in a Planetarium Experience, Gallery Tour of Featured Exhibition, Live Science Demonstration, Wildlife Center Exploration, and hands-on exhibit titled Newtons' Notions.

November 1st and 2nd, 2010 from 9:30-2:00

Students that are interested in taking part in this activity should call Dwanita Fields to make reservations as spots are limited.

Dwanita Fields,
305-460-8928
dwanita@breakthroughmiami.org

School Year Program - Island Fun

Students will take a short boat ride to Island E on Biscayne Bay and learn how to use a compass to follow a trail to hidden treasures.

January 21st and April 4th, 2011
from 9:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Students that are interested in taking part in this activity should call Dwanita Fields to make reservations as spots are limited.

Dwanita Fields,
305-460-8928
dwanita@breakthroughmiami.org

School Year Program - Breakthrough Saturday Dates

BT Saturday #1 October 16, 2010
Ransom Everglades and Carrollton Combined at Ransom Everglades School

BT Saturday #2 October 30, 2010


BT Saturday #3 November 13, 2010


BT Saturday #4 November 20, 2010


BT Saturday #5 December 11, 2010


BT Saturday #6 December 18, 2010
All Programs at Doctors Charter School

BT Saturday #7 January 15, 2011


BT Saturday #8 January 29, 2011


BT Saturday #9 February 12, 2011


BT Saturday #10 February 26, 2011
All Programs at Doctors Charter School

BT Saturday #11 March 5, 2011


BT Saturday #12 March 26, 2011


BT Saturday #13 April 2, 2011


BT Saturday #14 April 16, 2011

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

Teacher Intern Has A Breakthrough Moment in Bowdoin Library

In the picture:
Tori-Ann Holness, BT Scholar, Zoe Eiber, Program Assistant/Teacher Intern

Hey! So I'm in the library busily working on one of my many final papers. This one is for my poetry class and our assigment was to chose a poet that we read this semester and read a bunch of their work and pick a common theme out of that. We're supposed to find critical sources, bibliographic and other things to support our theme and then write one piece about all of that. Anyways, I wrote my first paper on this poem "The Tropics of New York" by Claude McKay and thought he was GREAT (you should look up the poem--its really great), but I couldn't write about him again, so I decided to do another Harlem Renaissance poet--Langston Hughes. I've spent all day reading about him and critical essays on his poetry when I finally, just now, got to my interpretations of his poems. I decided to focus on three of them and couldn't figure out why some of them looked SO FAMILIAR, especially since we didn't talk about them in class...when I realized I TAUGHT THEM AT BREAKTHROUGH! Good to know that college kids & breakthrough students study the same things!

Sincerely,
Zoe Eiber
Bowdoin College

PIANO SLAM: VOLUME 2

“Life Inside A Song”

Have you ever been trapped inside something so big,
You thought it could never be true,

That life was playing a trick on you?
Well that’s what music can do,

Can take away the saddest moments,
That way happiness can stay,

Hip hop will make you want to move,
But gospel really touches you,

Classical may put you to sleep,
Jazz will help you find the beat,

The beat that takes you where you want to go,
But that’s just life inside a song.

By Alexus Wilson

What do you get when you mix classical tunes, with urban beats, and reflections of music’s meaning from students across Miami Dade County? Piano Slam: Volume 2 presented by The Dranoff International Two Piano Foundation. It began as a Super Saturday English lesson at Breakthrough Miami. Students were asked to creatively express the role that music plays in their lives while listening to the melodic tunes of William Bolcom, 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Some students wrote poems while others created artwork to illustrate their feelings toward the music. Each poem was entered into the Piano Slam poetry contest along with the poems of 15 other middle and high schools in Miami. Out of over 2000 entries, Breakthrough Miami student, Alexus Wilson was chosen as one of 16 finalist. Alexus received a phone call from Piano Slam producer ,Deborah Magdalena, revealing the great news. In addition to being awarded one hundred dollars Alexus would perform her poem in front of an audience of over a thousand at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Alexus had an opportunity to attend two spoken word workshops with performing artist Lela Lombardo and Summer Hill Seven prior to the May 12th event. While Susan and Sarah Wang, Dranoff International Two Piano Competition Silver Medal Winner played Bolcom’s “Recuredos” Alexus made her poem come alive, her words danced around the James L. Knight Concert Hall, echoing sentiments of “Life Inside a Song.” The Wilson Family, Friends, and Breakthrough Miami Staff are very proud of Alexus’s accomplishments and look forward to Piano Slam: Volume 3. http://dranoff2piano.org/outreach.htm.

Ariel Edwards
Associate Site Director

Breakthrough Scholars Meet Three Local Leaders; Magic Johnson, Alonzo Mourning, and Kendrick Meek

Photo Caption:
Deja Schuler, BT Scholar, Dwight Spencer, BT Scholar, Alonzo Mourning, Ajoni Booth, BT Scholar, Jeremy Smith, BT Scholar and Teacher-Intern, Terrence Claster, BT Scholar

Breakthrough Miami students attended an event at the home of Breakthrough Miami's Chairman of the Board, Jeffrey Miller. Congressman Kendrick Meek, Magic Johnson, and Alonzo Mourning were several local leaders in attendance. Breakthrough Miami Scholars spent the afternoon honing their social skills by demonstrating their ability to formally introduce themselves to adults, appropriate presentation through event attire, and proper decorum at social events. Breakthrough Miami prides itself in providing students with unique experiences that are both teachable and memorable.

Webber J. Charles
Associate Site Director

Leave a Legacy 2010: The Donor Next Door

Honoring Jeffery Miller's commitment to Miami-Dade Students

Jeffrey Miller is the chairman of the Board of Directors for Breakthrough Miami. His leadership on the board has enabled Breakthrough Miami to become the largest program in the Breakthrough Collaborative. He is a tireless advocate for education and he especially helps the youth of Miami-Dade County BREAKTHROUGH any obstacles in their way to success. Breakthrough Miami would not be where it is without Jeffrey Miller and the Miller Family Foundation.

Besides his work at Breakthrough Miami, Jeffrey Miller works with many other philanthropic organizations. He is the current Chairman of The Council for Educational Change, another local non-profit organization which works to improve Miami-Dade county public schools. He received an award from the Council for his work with Hialeah Elementary and Holmes Elementary schools. He also received the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Exemplary Partnership Award-Business Leader award.

The Miller Family is one of the most philanthropic families in South Florida. Jeffrey's father, Leonard Miller was the CEO of the Lennar Corporation. In 2004, Mr. Miller gave the largest gift in Florida's history to the University of Miami, School of Medicine. He also was a founder of the Council for Educational Change. Leonard Miller believed: "If Every Child Can Get a Quality Education, Every Child Can Succeed." These are the exact sentiments of Jeffrey and are evident by his determined efforts on behalf of children.

Jeffrey's selfless committment to bettering the lives of children gives us strength to continue our mission. Executive Director Alicia Rodriguez-Bower notes, "We are proud to honor Jeffrey Miller for his dedication to Breakthrough Miami's students, parents, teachers and staff. He has inspired all of us to give more of our energy and hearts to our mission of helping children fulfill their dreams."

Joanne Messing
Development Director