Breakthrough Cincinnati program helps underrepresented students go to college

Growing up, Ximen Morgan was always a good student. Maybe too good. She remembers repeatedly getting "caught" reading in class.

"I really liked learning," she said. But she was shy. "I had the same three friends in my elementary school."

It wasn't until Morgan joined Breakthrough Cincinnati , a program for marginalized students with strong academic potential, that she started to come out of her shell. She met other students like her, who loved school, from all over Greater Cincinnati. And the teaching fellows that led workshops and summer camps at Breakthrough brought a lot of positive energy, she said.

Last summer, five years after she graduated from Breakthrough, Morgan returned to camp as a teaching fellow herself.

"I just like to give back to people who poured into me," she said.

What is Breakthrough Cincinnati?

Breakthrough provides college visits, tutoring, college readiness workshops and a tuition-free summer camp for students in fifth through ninth grades who identify with at least two of the following groups:

Breakthrough Cincinnati is part of The Breakthrough Collaborative , formerly known as Summerbridge National, which hosts programs in 25 cities across the country. Cincinnati's program was founded in 1992 . All of these programs are aimed at getting more marginalized students college-ready.

About 200 students from more than 80 different schools join Breakthrough programming throughout the year in Cincinnati. The Summer Scholars program is always the most well-attended, said Rhonda Starghill, Breakthrough Cincinnati's executive director. The camps take place on University of Cincinnati's campus and at Cincinnati Country Day School.

At camp, students participate in 40-minute core classes – English, social studies, math and science – in the mornings. In the afternoons, they take elective classes such as Spanish, coding, dance, leadership, American Sign Language and others. And on Fridays, there are field trips to explore various career fields.

The five-week program is free and includes transportation and meals. It's a highly selective program − students who apply need to answer essay questions, get teacher recommendations and go to interviews. The rigorous application process ensures youth and parents are committed to the program and that "there's some skin in the game," Starghill said.

As a student, Morgan said Breakthrough's summer scholars program foreshadowed what she would learn in the upcoming school year. It gave her opportunities to advocate for herself and learn what she needs to succeed.

"It gave me confidence to go into my next school year," she said.

'I can do anything that I put my mind to.'

Now, as a teaching fellow, Morgan enjoys coming up with projects that will get her students excited about books.

On the carpet of a room down the hall from her class, she taped the outline of a body. Her students searched for clues around the building in a murder mystery game, a tribute to Walter Dean Myers' "Monster," a novel they read together in class.

She's still a bookworm herself, but she's no longer shy. Morgan said she wants her students to "find confidence and really be able to stand on their own," especially as they enter high school.

"It's really cool to see their outlook and what they believe in," Morgan said.

Morgan is a junior now at the University of Cincinnati, studying insurance and risk management. But teaching is one of her passions, she said, and she could see herself coming back to education someday.

The experiences she had as a kid through Breakthrough, Morgan said, inspired her to reach for the stars.

"Seeing all these different career paths growing up, it really did reinforce that I'm not limited to anything in life and I can do anything that I put my mind to," she said.