In 2021, Robin Friedman, a GFS Upper School teacher, and Michelle Palmer, Executive Director of Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia, were brainstorming possible solutions to the questions: what could help deepen the school community’s awareness of Breakthrough, and build bridges between GFS and the program?  

“Our goal was to bring together these two groups of students that are all part of GFS for academic and social mentoring, and also to develop authentic relationships,” Friedman said. 

Together, Palmer and Friedman conceived of a program that would pair GFS Upper School students with a group of seventh and eighth-grade Breakthrough Scholars. The kids would meet a few evenings a month during the school year, they decided, for tutoring, socializing, and dinner, with some off-campus trips and activities to foster meaningful relationships. They called this program Community Connections. 

This initiative would require funding, and so the duo did what many GFS faculty and staff do when launching or beta-testing new programs: they applied for The Maguire Innovation Fund for Progressive Education.

“I don’t think we would have proposed Community Connections if there wasn’t Maguire,” Friedman said. “This fund is specifically for people to dream up pilot projects.”

The Maguire Innovation Fund was established in 2017 by Jamie Maguire and Lisa Miller, parents of alumni in the classes of 2012, 2015, and 2019, in partnership with the Maguire Foundation. Their goal with the endowed fund was to provide seed money to encourage entrepreneurial thinking and inventive problem-solving among the school’s faculty. 

Every year, funding is awarded to a group of applicants who propose creative programming and solutions that further transformational learning experiences at GFS. Past awardees have included the Friends Free Library Community Writers Series, Middle School Mini-Courses, and Lower School Anti-Bias Curriculum development, among many others. 

Community Connections was awarded Maguire Innovation funding in 2021 to launch its inaugural year. The program took off, with high levels of student interest and participation. Palmer and Friedman reapplied for the 2022-23 academic year, and again received funding. In subsequent years, it has become part of regular GFS programming. That's how the Maguire Innovation Fund is meant to work: it jump-starts programs, a number of which are rolled into the school’s operational budget.  

As Community Connections has taken root as a permanent part of Breakthrough, it’s made a real impact on students. 

Community Connections was the first time I’d been on the older end of a tutoring or mentorship relationship like this, and it was a huge moment of growth for me. I’m still growing and benefiting from it. Being looked up to by my mentee changed my perspective on how I acted and interacted with others. As a senior, to have some experience in that position is going to be so helpful in the classroom, and in sports and clubs.

- Anand Rajagopalan ’25

A motto I’ve carried after working with Breakthrough is: Learning doesn’t have to look one way. Like on one of the last Community Connections days, we had a Field Day with games like two-legged races. We allowed each other to mess up and be bad at things. With learning, we often feel like we can’t not know something, or be bad at things that we think other people are succeeding at. With activities like this, it’s fun to just mess up and laugh about it and bond over it.

- Lani Okewole ’25

“Because of the near-peer model, these middle schoolers get to hang out one-on-one with high schoolers who want to get to know them and learn about their lives,” said Sakina Parks, Breakthrough’s Program Manager. “And while the Scholars get to know their mentor, they get a window into what it will be like when it’s their turn to take the SAT and apply to college. It indirectly plants seeds for them, and lets them envision their futures.”

Parks also reports that the Scholars who participate in Community Connections are more engaged with the other components of Breakthrough.

“Overall, they tend to be more present and attend our Saturday sessions on a more frequent basis, which strengthens the program,” she noted. “The majority of them come back every summer.” 

Faculty and student leaders continue to innovate and improve upon Community Connections, which is now in its fourth year. For example, a new feature for the 2024-25 school year is small “squads” into which the students are grouped to help the program feel more intimate. The majority of the planning is now in the hands of the GFS student mentors, and there is a new test preparation component, thanks to help from Andrew Snover, a GFS parent who works for MJ Test Prep. The big trip this year will be a tour of Howard University, where they’ll spend time with a number of GFS alumni who currently attend.

“Every year it gets better,” Friedman said. “And it’s not just GFS kids ‘helping’ the Breakthrough students—these groups of kids have a lot in common, and have different things to teach each other. Over the year, they build lasting relationships that enrich everybody.”

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What is a near-peer model? This is a teaching/learning strategy where students who are relatively close in age are paired up. The older students are in the role of instructor or mentor and can share their experience and knowledge, but are still able to relate to the younger students. 

 

Photos courtesy of Grayson Graham ’25