Breakthrough Miami students help clean up a West Grove cemetery

Sierra Reid, 13, repaints a grave at the Coconut Grove Cemetery as part of the Breakthrough Miami community service day. Students from various middle schools across Miami-Dade participate in the program throughout the year. Photo by Lindsay Brown.

The students, part of the Breakthrough Miami program, put a fresh coat of white paint on the graves and helped rake away leaves that had accumulated on the site over the months.

The program – which used to be known as Summerbridge Miami  -  is in its 17th year and is geared toward students from disadvantaged communities who want to get ahead in the school system.

Through after school tutoring, community service projects, extracurricular activities and a short summer program, the students are groomed for top high schools like DASH Academy, a magnet school in Miami’s design district, and MAST Academy.

The ultimate goal is to get the students into college.

“Most of these kids give up their summers for the three years they are actually in middle school. They are advancing their studies. When they come in as a sixth grader, they are doing eighth grade work,” said Jamael Stewart, a senior site director at Breakthrough Miami.

Founded in 1991 at Ransom Everglades, Breakthrough Miami is modeled after the original Summerbridge program established in 1978 at University High School in San Francisco

According to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics, only 7% of low-income eighth grade students complete a bachelor’s degree 12 years later, compared to 60 % of high-income students.

With a grant for $3.25 million from the Knight Foundation and the support of Ransom Everglades School, the administrators of the program say they plan to increase the number of students they serve from 300 to more than 1,100 by 2012.

Breakthrough Miami is currently looking for high school juniors, seniors and college students interested in teaching during the upcoming summer session, which runs from June 11 to Aug. 6.

The teacher internship application is online at https://www.breakthroughcollaborative.org/apply/app-2009-00bd.htm.

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