Volunteer 
Want to get involved? There are a number of ways for you to help out with making breakthroughs happen.
Tutoring:
Our middle school and high school students sometimes need extra help in staying on top of their academic game. We are especially in need of high school level math and science tutors. If you’re interested, please contact volunteer@breakthroughnewyork.org
Hosting a Career Day:
Every summer, our students visit a place of work for an afternoon to get a taste of the real working world. If you are interested in hosting a group of middle school students at your place of work and talking about what it takes to be successful in your industry, please contact volunteer@breakthroughnewyork.org
Young Professional Committee:
Our Young Professional Committee, comprised of New York professionals in their 20s-40s, help plan and organize fundraising and friendraising events. It is a great way to get to know new people and to help out a great cause. For more information, please contact volunteer@breakthroughnewyork.org
Expertise and talents:
If you think that you can help Breakthrough in some way through your professional skills, connections or talents, please contact us. Perhaps you’re keen to host a financial literacy workshop? Maybe you want to donate your graphic design skills? Please contact us at volunteer@breakthroughnewyork.org, or call 917-258-3457.
Visit Us 
Seeing is believing at Breakthrough New York. We are always thrilled to welcome guests into our community. If you are interested in visiting, please contact us by clicking here.
Apply to Teach
Every year, we look to recruit the best and brightest high school and college students to teach in our afterschool and summer programs.
During the summer, students and teachers are arranged into “families,” consisting of four teachers, and 10-12 students. All teachers are teamed into teaching pairs.
Teachers belong to one academic department and teach enrichment classes. Every teacher intern belongs to one of our four main academic departments: literature, writing, mathematics, or science. During Orientation, teachers are trained within departments, and professional teachers provide them with specific skill goals for each grade level (for example, “the five-paragraph essay” or “solving equations with one variable”). At the beginning and end of the summer, students are assessed through program-wide skill tests, which are designed to measure their progress meeting the skill goals.
In addition, teacher interns can self-design an elective class based on their own interests. In previous summers, our mini-course offerings have included History of Rap Music, Visual Art, African Dance, History of Chinatown, Graph This!, Public Speaking/Debate, Poetry, Women in Science-Fiction, Comics as Literature, Number Theory, and Malcolm X & Martin Luther King, Jr. Electives may be taught alone or in teams. Athletics, computers, and art are also offered in the afternoon.
During the school year, our teacher interns work more intensively with three students on homework and additional enrichment work. It is our goal to ensure that our students receive the extra homework help that they need to remain on a strong academic track.
How We Train:
We designed our training model specifically with the needs of brand new teachers in mind. Through intensive workshops, modeling and coaching by professional teachers, our teacher interns are trained and ready to teach! Throughout the summer and school year, our teacher interns can expect to receive feedback and training with professional educators and extra help in learning how to implement scripted curricula.
Demographic breakdown of summer 2011 teachers:
• 50% males
• 72% teachers of color
• 77% current college students
All Applicants Must:
• Be at least 16 years old and enrolled in an accredited high school or college.
• See themselves as caring leaders and strong role models.
• Be interested in working with a group of 7-9th grade students who are ethnically and economically diverse.
• Be deeply concerned with the academic success and future of the students in the program.
• Be able to relate openly and directly with adults, peers and students.
• Be capable of assuming responsibility without close supervision yet be able to acknowledge problems and share them with members of the staff.
• Be ready to receive and give direct and constructive criticism
TEACHER APPLICATION
If you are a high school or college student interested in applying to teach at Breakthrough New York over the summer, please read the section on Breakthrough Collaborative’s website for a general overview of the teaching experience, and to complete the online application.
TUTOR APPLICATION
If you are a high school or college student interested in working at Breakthrough New York’s after-school program, please note that we open up applications in September and December. Tutors are expected to commit to Mondays and Wednesdays after-school from October-December (fall semester) or January-April (spring semester), with the exception of pre-scheduled school vacations. If you are interested in being an afterschool tutor, please access the online application here.
Breakthrough New York aims to select 90% of summer faculty by mid-February. If New York is your first choice site, please apply as early as possible
Apply to Learn
Our application is now available here for summer 2012.
Breakthrough New York seeks a diverse group of students whose opportunities could be expanded by their participation in our program. We look for 6th grade students who earn A or B averages in their schools, get 3′s and 4′s on their citywide tests and who will commit to the program from 7th grade until 12th grade, and demonstrate factors that limit their opportunities.
Breakthrough New York has proven positive outcomes for our students. Independent assessments have shown that our students make statistically significant improvements in their reading, writing, and math skills (average 2 grade levels in a six-week period). Furthermore, we have also seen positive results from an assessment conducted by Stanford University professor Dr. Shirley Feldman. This study showed statistically positive effects on students’ effort and involvement in school (increases in time spent on overall homework, as well as math homework), and positive effects on their perception of school (increases in perceptions of teachers and classmates as supportive of learning, and decreases in school-related hassles).
• 90% of our students qualify for federal free or reduced lunch
• 55% would be the first in their generation to attend college
• 39% African American, 37% Hispanic/Latino, 16% Asian American, 8% Other
• 52% males
Academic Program:
Our academic six-week summer program supplements and enhances our students’ core knowledge of basic skills in the core curricula. In order to prepare our students to enter and thrive in academically challenging, college preparatory high schools, we offer literature, writing. math and science. In our core middle school program, all students must commit to full-time attendance of three summers and two school years.
Our literature and writing curricula will focus primarily on reading comprehension, critical thinking, grammar and five-paragraph essay writing.
Our math curriculum offers a balanced mix of whole-group instruction and individual practice to help students proceed in their acquisition of math knowledge. Our goal is to have all of our students algebra-ready by their eighth grade year.
For our science curriculum, we aim to have our students prepared for the Biology regents by 9th grade.
In addition, we plan a number of special event Fridays to expose our students to extra-curricular activities that encourage character-building, community development and an introduction to the working world.
Our academic school year program seeks to provide academic enrichment, support and ongoing mentoring relationships with our staff. Our students meet twice weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays with tutors to work on homework or self-identified areas of academic challenge. We host one Fun Friday a month to encourage community cohesion.
High School Placement:
After participating in Breakthrough New York, we help our students explore and apply to a variety of public, parochial, independent day and boarding schools. Our program does not seek to send all of our students to one particular kind of school, but to help families explore options and apply to schools that meet each student’s academic, social, and extracurricular needs.
Here is a sampling of some of the high schools
that Breakthrough students have attended:
• Baruch College Campus High School
• Beacon School
• Bronx Science
• Brooklyn Tech
• Cathedral School
• Choate Rosemary Hall
• The Dalton School
• The Dwight-Englewood School
• Eleanor Roosevelt High School
• Ethical Culture Fieldston School
• The Groton School
• The New York City Lab School
• The Nightingale-Bamford School
• The Peddie School
• Phillips Exeter Academy
• Poly Prep Country Day School
• Stuyvesant High School
Here is a sampling of some of the colleges that our graduates have attended:
• Amherst College
• Bowdoin College
• Brown University
• Connecticut College
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• DePauw University
• Hampton University
• Harvard University
• Ithaca College
• Morgan State University
• Middlebury College
• New York University
• University of Pennsylvania
Student Applications:
Applicants must undergo a rigorous selection process, which includes essays, teacher recommendations, parent/guardian recommendations, and a personal interview. Teachers, guidance counselors, and principals who work with the students play an important role in the selection process.
We’re accepting application from January to March 2012. Applications will be available online in January 2012.
We recruit current 6th grade students from New York City middle schools in all five boroughs of metro New York. We only accept 6th grade students and commit to them for six years until their acceptance into a four-year college.
While there is no one type of Breakthrough student, our students generally exhibit the following characteristics:
• Students are at least in the top 10% in their grade.
• Students would be the first in their family to attend a four-year college in the US.
• Students generally have no lower than a 3 on their citywide test scores for reading and math fluency.
• Students have at least an 85 or B+ GPA.
• Students demonstrate leadership potential and positive community spirit.
• Students lack access to significant academic enrichment (i.e. tutoring, summer academic programs) because of family economic constraints.
Students must commit to being a part of Breakthrough New York for six years throughout middle school and high school. Once they enter college, they become Breakthrough New York alumni.
If Breakthrough New York is not partnered with your school, you may email our Middle School Director: Manhattan, Natalie Cox, for applications at: natalie@breakthroughnewyork.org.
Job Opportunities 
Thank you for your interest. We are not currently recruiting for staff positions at this time. Please check back intermittently for openings.