Mentoring program coming to Durham

By Paul Bonner

DURHAM -- Students teaching students -- that's the model for Breakthrough Collaborative, a nationwide tutoring and mentoring program for middle-schoolers that will be coming to Durham.

Daniel Kimberg, a junior at Duke University who plans a career in education, is one of the main organizers of the branch that he hopes to start up in the summer of 2007. Kimberg is from New York but said he's dedicated to remaining in Durham for at least three years after he graduates to help get the program running.

In the meantime, he and other organizers, who include two other Duke students and one at UNC, will concentrate on fundraising, planning a curriculum and forging community connections.

Students Katie Cohen and Amanda Dorsey at Duke and Emily Mary Williams at UNC are also part of an organizing committee with about 13 members drawn from Duke, UNC and Durham.

They'll hold a reception to introduce people to the concept from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the Brumley Performing Arts building at Durham Academy at 3601 Ridge Road. The event is open to the public, but an RSVP to btdurham@gmail.com or (914) 772-4308 is requested.

For six weeks in each of three summers, disadvantaged middle-school students will meet at Durham Academy for classes in academic and elective subjects taught by area high school and college students, Kimberg said.

"So the whole key is that it follows the students-teaching-students model," Kimberg said. "I really do believe this could help the Durham Public Schools and the community in general."

Seventy-five percent of Breakthrough students become the first in their families to go to college, Kimberg said.

The summer sessions will be followed up during the school year, with the same teachers meeting with the students once a week at their middle schools and taking them on community outings each weekend.

Breakthrough Collaborative was founded in 1978 in San Francisco as the Summerbridge program. It has since spread to 25 locations, employing 700 college and high school students serving more than 2,000 middle-school students, according to the program's Web site, www.breakthroughcollaborative.org.

After his freshman year at Duke, Kimberg worked at a Breakthrough site in New Orleans and was inspired to replicate it.

"I realized that Durham was a type of place that could definitely benefit from this type of program," he said.

The group hopes to start with 40 students and 14 teachers. By the third year, it aims to have 120 students. Teachers are paid a stipend of $1,000 for the summer. Middle-school students are recommended by teachers and principals.

"We're looking for students who are motivated and who will be able to strive in this type of environment but who don't have that type of opportunity normally," Kimberg said.

Durham school board members Heidi Carter and Steve Schewel have been among the plan's promoters.

"I'm really excited about the fact that there are young people this interested in education and helping the community," Carter said.

It could help raise middle-school students' academic performance throughout the school district, she said.

"For the older students that have been involved in providing tutoring, it benefits them as much as those who are being tutored," she said.

Kimberg says he's experienced that benefit himself.

After teaching in New Orleans, "I knew I wanted to be inside the classroom for the rest of my life," Kimberg said. "It's just a very exciting opportunity."

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