Our History: Making Breakthroughs since 1978

Founded in San Francisco in 1978 as “Summerbridge”, Breakthrough is a national, research-proven intervention which annually prepares 2,700 low-income, high-potential middle-school students to enter and succeed in college-preparatory programs; provides college-readiness programming to 2,700 high-school students; and recruits, trains, and inspires over 700 outstanding high-school and college students to pursue careers in education. In Breakthrough’s unique Students Teaching Students model, high-school and college students serve as teachers, mentors, and role models to motivated middle-school students who face significant obstacles on the path to college.

Breakthrough Collaborative was founded in 1991 as “Summerbridge National” to oversee the growth, support, and development of local programs. Over the past 19 years, the national office has partnered with Stanford University and the American Institutes for Research to conduct a longitudinal study of the program’s effectiveness; developed a national teacher-application and recruitment process which garners over 2,000 applications annually for summer teaching internships at Breakthrough affiliates; created pipeline relationships with organizations, such as the Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholars, to provide academic opportunities for Breakthrough alumni; designed and implemented national, web-based, longitudinal tracking databases for students, teachers, and directors; and developed a training, coaching, and leadership model to ensure high quality, effective services, and mission-driven student, teacher, and director outcomes at local affiliates across the country.