Carol hadn’t planned on spending the summer teaching. But when a friend told them about Breakthrough Collaborative, they saw it as an escape route from a university experience that wasn’t working. During that first week of training in 2018, they showed up uncertain, overwhelmed, and in tears. But they remember vividly the words of then Program Director, Alex Serna: “We don’t need perfect teachers. We just need teachers who care.” That was the beginning of a community they still carry today.
Before Carol even stepped into a classroom, Breakthrough had already changed them. Nervous about sharing their pronouns with students, Carol posted them in a Teaching Fellows group. Thirty minutes later, a message arrived; their post had given another TF the courage to do the same. “Before meeting anyone, I had already found someone I could lean on.” That kind of connection is what Breakthrough builds in every person who walks through its doors.
Inside the classroom, Carol discovered an intentionality that moved them. Students weren’t talked down to; they were treated as the young adults they were becoming, brought into honest conversations about identity, race, and opportunity. Carol arrived thinking maybe they wanted to be a teacher. They left that summer knowing it with certainty.
That clarity never left. After years teaching in Las Vegas through Teach For America, Carol couldn’t stop asking: how do we get Breakthrough here? Today, Carol is partnering with Breakthrough to explore growth opportunities in Las Vegas. Through their fellowship with Opportunity180, Carol is already working with college students and aspiring teachers, running trainings developed from the elements of Breakthrough that shaped them most.
Breakthrough gave Carol a community when they needed one. Today, they’re excited about helping Breakthrough reach and support more young people, so they can feel exactly what Carol felt in 2018: seen, valued, and worth the effort.