Growing up, Ximen Morgan was always a good student. Maybe too good. She remembers repeatedly getting “caught” reading in class.
“I really liked learning,” she said. But she was shy. “I had the same three friends in my elementary school.”
It wasn’t until Morgan joined Breakthrough Cincinnati , a program for marginalized students with strong academic potential, that she started to come out of her shell. She met other students like her, who loved school, from all over Greater Cincinnati. And the teaching fellows that led workshops and summer camps at Breakthrough brought a lot of positive energy, she said.
Last summer, five years after she graduated from Breakthrough, Morgan returned to camp as a teaching fellow herself.
“I just like to give back to people who poured into me,” she said.
What is Breakthrough Cincinnati?
Breakthrough provides college visits, tutoring, college readiness workshops and a tuition-free summer camp for students in fifth through ninth grades who identify with at least two of the following groups: