RE LOG - Spring 2017

6 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2017 testament to the power of education, community spirit and, perhaps most of all, the bond between two lifelong friends. “It was a whole community effort,” Flickinger said. “It really engaged everyone at Ransom Everglades.” The program that began with 40 students on just one campus has grown to more than 1,200 at six sites. A budget of $80,000 in its first summer now stands at nearly $3 million. Modeled off of a successful program launched at University High School in San Francisco, Summerbridge lured talented middle-school students from around Miami – including its poorest communities – into its ranks and recruited ambitious students from colleges around the nation to teach them. The goal was 100-percent high school graduation rates, and 100-percent college matriculation rates. Elissa Vanaver, the chief executive officer of Breakthrough Miami, said the organization has achieved nearly perfect marks – consistently above 90 percent among students who remain in the program – since the very beginning. “It has been just so tremendously successful on so many fronts,” said Jeffrey Miller ’79 , a former Breakthrough Miami board chairman and current member. “The kids are special. Back when we were just 40 strong it was good, but it has evolved into a much, much bigger good. What it has done is much bigger and more global.” One of 24 Breakthrough sites throughout the nation, Miami’s is the largest in terms of student participation. Miller and others say Miami’s program is considered among the nation’s finest, providing a blueprint that other regions have tried to emulate. The first class of Summerbridge scholars. “As a Summerbridge scholar, I fell in love with learning.” – Janelle Bravo-San Pedro, Assistant Principal, Southwest Miami High School The Miami Herald has chronicled the growth of Summerbridge/Breakthrough Miami in a number of stories, some front page, in the ’90s and 2000s.