Breakthrough Houston has announced it will return to HISD’s Gregory-Lincoln Education Center this summer to prepare high-achieving, low-income middle school students for competitive high school programs and exemplary college careers.

The Gregory-Lincoln campus will host 120 students in the Breakthrough Houston (BTH) program, which instructs, inspires, and empowers underserved middle school students to realize long-range academic and career goals. Many of the students attend HISD’s Achieve 180 schools, which receive strategic supports to bring about academic transformations.

In addition to the Gregory-Lincoln location, BTH operates at two non-district locations, serving more than 250 HISD middle school students.

“Doubling the number of HISD students in the Breakthrough Houston program at Gregory-Lincoln this summer will open the door even wider for future leaders, innovators, scientists, and educators to step through,” HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said.

Sixty of HISD’s BTH students who participated last year will return this summer as incoming seventh-graders. They will be joined by a new group of 60 HISD incoming sixth-graders.

After the summer 2020 enrichment program ends, the students will participate in Saturday college and career tutoring sessions throughout the school year.

“Breakthrough Houston, now in its 24th year, brings critically needed equitable education opportunities to HISD’s under-resourced students,” Executive Director Kathy Heinzerling said. “With our commitment to students, making sure they graduate from college, HISD and BTH have enjoyed a long-standing partnership to prepare students for success in school and later in the Houston workforce.”

Nearly every student who participates in the BTH program are accepted into at least one college or university – schools like Stanford, Princeton, Duke, Yale, Rice, Georgetown, Texas A&M, University of Texas, and Baylor.