Breakthrough Houston

The College Bound Program provides holistic support for BTH high school students to thrive in high school and confidently navigate the college admissions process. Established in 2008, the program offers a unique grade level-based approach to support students in the challenges impacting students each year throughout high school. The ninth grade program begins with a Freshman Seminar, which promotes essential and transferable skills to support students during this major change to high school. The tenth grade students begin investigating their personal interests through experiential learning opportunities including career shadowing, college exploration, and summer internships. Continued on Schedule OThe eleventh grade students start the college search process in earnest by building their college list, engaging in free SAT/ACT test preparation, and developing their personal statements for college admissions. The twelfth grade students focus on the final steps in their college admissions process, including polishing their short answers, submitting financial aid applications, weighing decisions, and making a transition plan.

Established in 2019, the College Completion Program provides wraparound support to BTH college students as they navigate the varied challenges that often prevent first generation students from completing their degrees. Support for academics, financial support and belongingness often comes in the form of one-on-one advising. In addition, the College Completion Program offers peer-to-peer mentoring through our Uni-T's program which allows BTH upperclassmen to formally mentor to BTH underclassmen.

To prepare new teachers for a career in education or education advocacy, college students serve as our summer teachers, or Teaching Fellows (TFs) in our Middle School Program. Veteran Instructors serve as coaches during the summer and provide a two week training program for TFs which provides space to learn and apply research-based, effective teaching strategies for lesson planning, classroom management, and relationship building. Throughout the summer, TFs will receive over 50 hours of solo teaching experience, 30 hours of coaching, and 5 hours of targeted professional development.