Breakthrough New York
With long term academic support, kids break the cycle of poverty in their lives forever
For many low-income youth, higher education is out of their reach, both academically and financially. Only 60% of America’s low-income youth can expect to graduate from high school; 1 in 3 can expect to enroll in college; and merely 1 in 7 will earn a bachelor’s degree. For the other 6 out of 7, most of these youth will never be able to break out of the cycle of poverty that kept them from college in the first place.
Believing that every kid who wants to go to college should get that opportunity, Breakthrough New York exists to change this cycle. Breakthrough is a unique college-access program serving high-potential, low-income students throughout New York City. Breakthrough makes a six year commitment to each student, serving 140 youth every year in grades 7-12. Most of their students will be the first in their families to go to college. Breakthrough differs from other similar programs that focus only on the very top students, for whom a program might mean the difference between attending an Ivy League or a State school. For many Breakthrough students, participating in the program often means the difference between going to a four-year college and perhaps not finishing high school; the difference between succeeding and falling through the cracks unnoticed.
Breakthrough’s unique program delivers a “students-teaching-students” model, pairing teacher interns (high-achieving high school and college students) with Breakthrough students. During the school year, Breakthrough provides after-school academic support, high school placement assistance, SAT preparation, referrals to summer and employment opportunities through partnership organizations, mentoring programs, workshops on college essay writing and financial aid applications, and trips to various universities. The experience is extremely rewarding not only for the students, but for the student-teacher interns, 83% of whom enter careers in education or public service after participating in the program.
Founded as a program of the Town School in 1999, Breakthrough New York became incorporated as an independent non-profit organization in 2009, and now serves 140 kids every year in grades 6-12 from Harlem, Washington Heights, The Lower East Side, Yorkville, and parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Breakthrough provides an intervention for these at-risk youth with tremendous success: 97% of their eighth graders attend college preparatory school, and 95% of their high school seniors were accepted into 4-year colleges.
While Breakthrough New York is transforming young lives every day, they have far more applicants than they can accommodate. Five students apply for every one available spot in their program, and roughly 84,000 sixth grade students in New York would be eligible for their help. That is why The Catalog selected Breakthrough New York to receive three years of funding, in order that they may continue to expand their services and help many more teens break through.
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Recent News:
Catalog Programs Expanding!
Catalog Member Organizations Breakthrough New York and Row New York will be expanding their programs to new sites this year.
