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Latest News
| Tickets Available Now for February 8 |
Please join us for dinner on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 from 6 - 9 pm for Raise Your Hand: Making Breakthroughs Possible. Breakthrough's annual fundraiser, the event brings some 300 guests to San Francisco Day School for food and drink, good company, and a not-to-be-missed conversation on education reform.
The event will feature a keynote address by Kevin Johnson, who has been Mayor of Sacramento, his hometown, since 2008. Known already as the "Education Mayor," he co-chairs U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's Mayors Advisory Council, and chairs the U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Public Education. He also recently founded STAND UP, a non-profit organization advocating for excellent public schools. He previously served as CEO of St. HOPE, a community development corporation in Sacramento, and was an all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns. Mr. Johnson holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and is a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School's Summer Leadership Institute.
Learn about individual or corporate sponsorship options>
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| AT&T Helps Students "Rethink Possible" |
Anderson was nine when he came to San Francisco from Guatemala. Learning English was just one of the challenges he faced. Attending Breakthrough, however, eased his transition, dramatically increasing his academic skills. The program also encouraged him to think differently about the future; his goal now is to earn a college scholarship. “After Breakthrough everything started going well,” Anderson says. “I want to go to college because no one in my family has gone. I’ll be the first one.”
Students like Anderson are direct beneficiaries of AT&T’s corporate philanthropy. The telecommunications company recently invested $50,000 in Breakthrough’s two San Francisco locations, at San Francisco Day School and University High School. A key supporter of Breakthrough since 2009, AT&T has for years ranked at or near the top of the San Francisco Business Times’ Bay Area corporate philanthropy list. On a national level, the company has committed $100 million over four years toward the educational attainment of America’s youth through its “Aspire” initiative, one of the largest corporate commitments of its kind, as it seeks to create a prepared workforce for tomorrow’s “possibility economy.”
These philanthropic dollars translate into additional learning opportunities. At Breakthrough, students receive four hours of intensive academic instruction daily throughout the summer, coupled with enrichment classes and personalized tutoring during the school year. Breakthrough students regularly make a full school year’s worth of academic progress in literacy, and six months of progress in math, over the course of the six-week summer program. In addition, college visits, outdoor education trips, and other special opportunities help students set their sights higher than ever.
AT&T is also investing in tomorrow’s leaders in an even more direct fashion. For the past two summers, the company has hosted Breakthrough students at its offices in downtown San Francisco. Students tour the workplace; eat lunch with senior executives; and hear from various employees about their jobs and the kinds of education needed to get there.
“At AT&T, we are committed to supporting education, and proud of our partnership with Breakthrough,” said Ken McNeely, President of AT&T California. “The program has such an incredible impact on students’ lives, today and long into their futures. And, it’s not just youth who benefit from Breakthrough. The energy and insight that the students bring to our offices when they visit are always a highlight for me and my staff!”
Breakthrough salutes AT&T for its investment in young people, both in San Francisco and nationally.
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| Taking Advantage of Summer |
For kids with sufficient resources, summer is an opportunity to travel to new parts of the globe or explore a new interest. But, as David Von Drehle wrote last year in Time, “for many children – especially children of low-income families – summer is a season of boredom, inactivity and isolation. Kids can’t go exploring if their neighborhoods aren’t safe. It’s hard to play without toys or playgrounds or open spaces.”
Low-income kids not only grapple with boredom; they also tend to regress academically. A Johns Hopkins study concluded that unequal access to meaningful summer learning opportunities accounts for as much as two-thirds of achievement differences between high- and low-income students.
At Breakthrough, our goal is not only to compensate for summer learning loss, but to launch our students far ahead of where they were when the summer started. For six weeks, Breakthrough kids receive four hours of intensive academic instruction daily in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. They also attend elective classes like dance and debate, and take part in special opportunities like Career Day and outdoor education. Their hard work is evident in their remarkable gains on the Stanford 10 assessment this past summer: an average of one school year's worth of progress in reading, and six months' worth of progress in math. Meanwhile, our teaching interns made dramatic growth as well.
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