They say you can’t go home again, but that’s exactly what Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia, a nonprofit that has been providing programming at Germantown Friends School (PA) for 27 years, is doing. What began on the school’s campus as a summer program to provide middle school students from the city’s under-resourced schools the supports they need to access select high schools and grew to become a year-round academic enrichment program that also recruits and trains teachers, is now an official part of the school.
In spring 2021, the school formally made Breakthrough, which serves more than 100 students and 30 teaching fellows every year, an official program of GFS. While Breakthrough remains a separate 501(c)(3), its program staff, operations, and curriculum are now overseen and supported by GFS. This includes everything from financial assistance to curricular help from academic deans to support Breakthrough’s eight-week summer program and its Saturday program as well as its teaching fellows program, which recruits and supports novice teachers through mentorship and supervision from seasoned educators from GFS and other area schools.
“GFS takes its responsibility to education seriously,” says Dana Weeks, head of school. As part of the school’s strategic vision and ongoing commitment to provide a GFS education experience through public-private partnerships, the school is planning to expand the Breakthrough program to serve elementary school students.
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Breakthrough students enjoy the chess elective.
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