Local middle and high school students took park in Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano’s 16th summer providing academic and life-enriching programs, serving highly motivated local students as they pursue their goal of college graduation and ultimately aim to end the cycle of poverty for their family.
This summer’s program was a mixture of online learning and in-person community-building days for students of Breakthrough, a tuition-free program founded, hosted and sponsored by St. Margaret’s. In total, students were at St. Margaret’s on five different occasions for themed community-building activities.
“One in particular was ‘Heroes Day,’” said outgoing Breakthrough SJC Director Alex Serna. “On that day, students wrote letters to people in the community who they considered to be heroes during the pandemic. The letters were to people like first responders, grocery workers, teachers and parents.”
The themed days supplemented virtual days four days a week with core academic programming in subjects like math, English, history, science, electives and advisory, which were taught by Breakthrough SJC teaching fellows, often college students found through Breakthrough Collaborative. Several of the teaching fellows this year were Breakthrough alumni themselves.
In all, more than 120 students took part in the summer programming. Nearly all Breakthrough students are from low-income backgrounds and strive to be the first in their families to go to college.
Read the official article here: https://www.smes.org/news-detail?pk=1183682
