Many middle school students in Southern California are enjoying their summer vacations with relaxed days of sleeping late, going to the pool and hanging out with friends. This is not the case for 48 San Juan Capistrano, Calif., middle school students who have voluntarily chosen to spend eight hours a day, five days a week in the classroom preparing for college.

No, they are not students who need summer school remediation; quite the contrary. This group of students, from low-income backgrounds, has demonstrated academic success and promise and as a result was accepted into an intensive, tuition-free academic enrichment program that helps prepare them for a college track in high school.

Breakthrough SJC, sponsored and hosted by St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, targets low-income, high-potential middle school students. Breakthrough, which just began its third year serving students from San Juan’s Marco Forster Middle School, aims to prepare its students for the rigors of college-track academics as well as with new information, networks and access to resources enabling their success in high school and guiding them on a path to college.

Despite talent and skill-level, low-income and minority students often face unique challenges that create insurmountable barriers to success in school. In high school, students must make important decisions about coursework and extracurricular activities that could better their chances at a college education. But for this student population, they are often misinformed, unaware, or have low motivation because they believe college is out of their reach.

“Middle school is a perfect age to connect with students,” says Diosa Adams, Breakthrough SJC program director. “Most high school students formalize their educational plans between grades eight and ten, suggesting that our efforts to positively influence a student’s educational aspirations are most likely to succeed if they happen by eighth grade.”

Breakthrough starts with an intensive six-week, eight-hours-a-day, summer session on the St. Margaret’s campus before a student’s seventh grade year. The summer schedule includes required classes in math, English, history and science and electives including, financial literacy, creative writing and public speaking. The daily All-School Meeting is an environment created for students and teachers to share special talents, moments and thoughts with the group. Additionally, students engage in field trips, college campus visits, Word of the Day, and family event programs. Breakthrough continues with guidance sessions twice a week throughout the next two school years and a second summer session before the eighth grade year.

The program is unique not only because of its focus on academics, but for those it enlists to teach its classes and serve as mentors to the students. Adams says, “Breakthrough taps young college and high school students who are interested in careers in education to serve as teachers in the program. Furthermore, we put an emphasis on attracting teachers who are of similar backgrounds to those in the program.”

Bernard Saunders, who is teaching math at Breakthrough SJC this summer, is a junior at Morehouse College in Atlanta and graduate of the Breakthrough program in Atlanta. Bernard says, “Breakthrough changed my life, forever. It kept me out of the system. It gave me a chance to succeed. I made the honor roll in my eighth grade year after being in Breakthrough and I’ve been on it ever since. I am the youngest of four and am the first in my family to graduate high school. It’s been a second family to me. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Breakthrough … and I’m here teaching because it’s my chance to give back what the program has given me.”

The focus on teachers brings numerous benefits to the program. It connects students with young role models who value learning and academic performance giving them first-hand exposure to the opportunities available to them through education and introduces new positive resources and influences with whom they can relate.

Saunders says, “I can relate to my students. I was them. I understand their problems, their fears, the peer pressure. I went through the self hate, the feeling that it’s not cool to be smart, the belief that it was more valuable to be the class clown than to be the star student. That mentality is embraced in their schools and I’m here to tell them, to show them that it’s not right. And, that there’s more for them.”

Breakthrough Teacher Julie Hernandez, from Santa Ana, Calif. and a 2008 graduate of St. Margaret’s who starts school at Stanford University in the fall, sees herself in the Breakthrough students. “Before St. Margaret’s, I was in a school where going to school isn’t cool or college isn’t stressed. I want our students to know that college isn’t just a word. Breakthrough allows for them to form their own connections; for them to see other role models and that it’s fun and cool to be smart. Breakthrough builds a bridge to the bigger world.”

Breakthrough SJC is part of a national program, Breakthrough Collaborative, adhering to its standards, process and model. In fall 2006, 80 percent of eighth grade Breakthrough students nationally were accepted to college preparatory high school programs.

Launched in 2006, Breakthrough SJC was initiated by St. Margaret’s Headmaster Marcus D. Hurlbut, who was the driving force behind two other Breakthrough programs at his former schools, Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire and Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York. Hurlbut says, “Breakthrough has a proven track record of changing lives. I have seen it firsthand. It would be hard to imagine a more worthwhile program for St. Margaret’s to embrace and I am thrilled to witness the enormous benefits it has brought to San Juan Capistrano and the St. Margaret’s community.”

About Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano
Breakthrough SJC is a tuition-free program that increases the educational opportunities for motivated, underserved middle school students so that they can realize their potential to excel in high school and graduate college. The program is also designed to encourage talented high school and college students to pursue careers in education. Participating teachers are outstanding local high school and college students from around the country.