Sayings of Breakthrough

This is a poem written by one of my students this summer. She was especially proud of it, and shared it at our last attendance on Friday...

Sayings Of Breakthrough

Sharing is caring,
There’s no I in teamwork,
Teamwork makes the dream work,
That’s what breakthrough students follow everyday,
Success Is in our future,
Were on the path to college,
So never give up,
Never stop trying.

It's amazing to me how much this program means to our students, how deeply they believe in hard work and the possibility of change, how badly they want to achieve these huge dreams. They inspire me and keep me going, and I am really going to miss them!

Tricia '10, BT AUSTIN!

BREAKTHROUGH, BREAKTHROUGH SV!

Hey Brown Breakthrough Teachers!

Breakthrough Silicon Valley just had our Celebration event yesterday. The gym was transformed into a showcase of the students' work and we had an exciting show filled with poetry reading, dancing, debates, and much more! It was a perfect ending to a perfect summer.






Breakthrough SV teachers








Our wonderful Celebration committee wrote songs for both the students and the teachers (which was a surprise!). Here are the choruses:

Student song (to California Girls):
Breakthrough kids SV
We're super knowledgeable
Polo Shirts
and backpacks on top
Stuh-dy skills
So sharp
We'll ace your hard-est test
Oooooh oh oooooh

Breakthrough kids
We're super knowledgeable
Smart, fun, stylin’
We got it on lock
Smartkids represent
Now put yo hands up
Oooooh oh oooooh

Teacher song (to Paparazzi):
I'm your biggest fan
I'll follow you until college
Breakthrough Breakthrough SV
Buddy, there's no other way to say
you know that I'll be your
Breakthrough Breakthrough buddy
promise I'll be here and I won't stop until you graduate
Buddy you'll be famous, chase you down until you study
Breakthrough Breakthrough SV

I miss my kids already!!

~ Donna Chung '12, Breakthrough Silicon Valley

Camping!

Breakthrough Cambridge spent the last two days of week four roughing it in the untamed woods of Gloucester, Massachusetts! After a full day of classes on Thursday, the students were positively psyched for our annual camping trip. The excitement was palpable on the bus ride up to our camp site.

After setting up tents and getting organized, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the swimming pool (which had an AWESOME water slide).

The evening was filled with fun campy activities, from a barbecue to man hunt to scary stories and s'mores around a campfire.

Today included more fun, with elective activities (basketball, kayaking, nature writing or poetry, and salsa dancing!), team building, several games of mafia (of course), and a talent show.

At the talent show, students Camille, Lara, Linda, Leyla, and Alex performed their own version of Travie Mccoy's "Billionaire"--all about BTC and going to college!!

Chorus:

I wanna be a college student

So frickin' bad

Writing essays on my notepad

I wanna be on the cover of

BTC Weekly (our newsletter)

Smiling next to Sarah (our director) and Jennie (our dean of students)

Oh every time I close my eyes

I see my name on honor roll

A different classroom every hour

Oh my, I swear

The world better prepare

For when I start my career.

Verse:

Doing cheers every morning, never gets boring

Getting an education with no complication

Sitting in math class, always got my pass

Lit discussion, math equations

Science experiments, never get tired of this

All in all, the camping trip was an amazing retreat for the BTC community, and after some R&R (and showers), we'll all be amped up and ready to go for Week FIVE (can you believe it?!).

-Sara Luxenberg '11 & Evelyn Limon '11, Breakthrough Cambridge

Providence Summerbridge Lock-In!

Every Summer Providence throws an all-night lock-in in the gym to stay up all night, show our SB spirit, and have non-stop fun.

Here's some of us Brownies gettin a lil CRAZY!

Erin '12 (AKA POSH) gets a little SPICY with some fellow SB teachers!

Ari '11 shows his supa fly side with his team teacher reppin the FAMILY 1!

- Matt '11, Erin '12, Ari '11, VT '10, Daniel '12, & Vincent '11, Providence Summerbridge

BTA Family Reunion Teacher Song!

Here is the video of the teacher song we performed during Family Reunion this past Saturday. The audience was BTA students, parents, and administration. The day consisted of student and teacher testimonials, a 7th and 8th grade song (which I am trying to find the videos of), as well as a museum of student work shown earlier in the afternoon.

The song is called "Beautiful Flower" by India Arie. We changed the words a bit to cater to our students. It was an incredible day!

- Blair Perry '11, Breakthrough Atlanta

Bittersweet BTA Goodbye!

Hey Brown Breakthrough Teachersss!!!

So, I have meant to post to this blog approximately 27 1/2 times, but seeing as how BTA takes up a ridiculous (but wonderful :) ) amount of my time, I have not gotten around to it. However, Breakthrough Atlanta is almost over (we just began wrap-up week), I have decided to devote some of my freeeee time (!) to posting some of the thoughts, videos, and pictures that I have gathered over the past 6 weeks. First of all, I must share some pics of our "Family Reunion" that too place this past Saturday.

We were all crying by the end... I miss the kids already :( More to come! Enjoy!
BTA Summer 2K10 teachers!!!

It was about 105 degrees and we were wearing two shirts, but still having fun!

The Lovett School

The students revealing their banner


Blair Perry '11

C-O-L-L-E-G-E

C-O-L, L-E-G-E

Hey, Evelyn!

-Yeah?

Where do you go to college?

-Huh?

Hey, Evelyn!

-Yeah?

Where do you go to college?

-Brown is where I go to college, that is where I get my knowledge!

The teachers lined the hallways of the Kennedy-Longfellow School on Friday, singing this cheer about our different schools to welcome students to the final day of week one. After a great first week, Breakthrough Cambridge held its first-ever College Challenge Day! Events included the application process relay race, human transcript grid, scholarship-earning competitions (dance, basketball, and engineering), college-choice matching game, college fair scavenger hunt, and graduation (where we gave all of our kids some college swag).

In our college-matching workshop, students--as colleges or applicants--had to talk to their peers to figure out their perfect match.

The BTC community gathered for graduation after a fun day of activities!

And of course, Evelyn and I repped Brown at the college fair!

The first week was complete with classes, cheers, and getting to know the great kids of Cambridge. We can't wait for week two!

-Sara Luxenberg '11 & Evelyn Limon '11, Breakthrough Cambridge