At first glance you might not think the business Lubrication Technologies and the nonprofit Breakthrough St. Paul have much in common. One is a leading lubrication and chemical supplier, the other addresses the over-whelming educational challenge bright students face when living at or below the poverty line. But if you think their worlds don’t overlap, you’d be wrong.

Breakthrough and Lube Tech have teamed up through SVP’s Philanthropic Partners Program. The program provides training and tools for Lube Tech, enabling them to make a grant to a social venture of their choice. After a thorough due diligence process Lube Tech employees decided to grant $25,000 to Breakthrough as part of their initiative to support STEM education. But their relationship doesn’t end with a check. Lube Tech is also providing volunteers from among their employees and management team to assist Breakthrough with capacity building projects as the organization expands.

Breakthrough St. Paul: The model and the results

In a country where less than 30% of low income students enroll in a four-year college and less than half graduate, we can look to organizations like Breakthrough St. Paul to show us one promising solution to the complex issue.  Breakthrough utilizes a unique “student teaching a student” model where academically motivated, financially under-resourced middle and high school students are taught by talented college students aspiring to become professional educators.  These aspiring teachers are trained, coached and mentored daily by professional educators.  Thus, the Breakthrough model not only reaches high potential students and gets them on the path to college, but it also gives our future educators invaluable training and real-world experience.

Each year, Breakthrough opens 55 seats to rising 7^th grade students.  To be selected, the students and families must commit to the 6-year, year-round program, which carries high expectations.  Every student enrolled must take at least one honors course every year, earn a minimum B- in all courses, commit to an hour and a half of homework every night, and participate in at least one extra-curricular activity every year.   Illness is the only excusable absence students get when it comes to Breakthrough’s after school, Saturday and summer programs.

Parent s and guardians have their responsibilities too.  In addition to supporting the student’s commitment, they must attend required events like conferences and celebrations.  They also must complete family workshops and proactively communicate with the organization on student progress.

The results of this intense program speak for themselves.  In 2013, Breakthrough received nearly 230 applications for the open 55 spots.  Since inception eight years ago, Breakthrough has brought two groups through the six year program, and 100% of these students are now completing their freshman and sophomore year of college.  The class of 2013 is on track with the same results including a Dell Scholar, two Gates Millennium Scholars, a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, a Wallin Scholar and a Questbridge Scholar.  Nearly a third of this year’s class has full-ride scholarships to high-caliber schools including Stanford, Williams College, and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Business.

Their model is scalable.  Breakthrough hopes to open five additional facilities over the next ten years, and they are on track so far.  Lube Tech looks forward to continuing their support of the graduating students, their families, and the organization itself.

Sources : Lubrication Technologies Spring newsletter and www.breakthroughsaintpaul.org