Founder & CEO, Break Through Potential, LLC &
Founder & Executive Director, Education Alliances, Nonprofit Organization
BRIEF HISTORY
In 2021, I left my position as a high school principal when I realized changing the educational landscape could not be done within. After twenty years of serving in schools, I joined the business world with an in-depth understanding of the challenges of schools and a solution with the potential to transform what we considered college and career ready. When students construct career-focused goals to plan their education, the outcome is powerful.
I am the founder and owner of Break Through Potential, LLC, and Education Alliances, a nonprofit. Both organizations are committed to every student successfully graduating and completing a higher education program in college, technical school, job training, professional certification, or the military to secure a self-sustaining career and achieve equitable economic prosperity.
WHY BREAK THROUGH POTENTIAL?
High school students have followed the same process to apply for college for over a century, Yet in the last twenty-five years, technological advances have changed the world more than in the previous five hundred years. So much so that the brain is evolving. As a result, teenagers are processing and experiencing life far different than before. Students struggle to represent who they are in college applications because they are trying to be a square peg in a round hole.
We have modernized the college application process, and no other college consulting company is doing what we are, including the top-rated business that charges over $100,000 for its platinum package. Because of this, we do not openly share the details of our work. Paying for an intellectual property lawyer is at the top of our priorities as we secure funding. Nonetheless, we are happy to discuss our method with like-minded pioneers. We can demonstrate the undeniable power of our work in a fifteen-minute meeting using a single-page example.
WHAT WE DO
To support students' postsecondary goals, BTP uses a backward design method and aligns their educational experience with opportunities for skill development, credentialing, and hands-on learning in their job market. Students often enter high school with learning gaps, so we offer services that address the needs of K-12 to ensure they are successful. Imagine a single resource for everything school-related from the moment your child takes their first step into kindergarten until they find their first job.
Our services include:
- High School Academic Services:
- Choosing a pathway and endorsement
- Developing a four-year plan
- Aligning courses to postsecondary goals
- Identifying course options inside and outside of school
- College Services:
- College essay writing tutoring (individual or group), seminars, and workshops
- Financial aid seminars, workshops, or individual assistance
- College scholarship search
- Best-fit colleges based on student needs
- Identifying the best major
- College application assistance and evaluation for competitiveness
- Offers strategies, recommendations, and resources to become competitive in the admissions process
- Connect students to hands-on experiences
- Resume Writing
- Career Services:
- All of our client students begin with a personality profile that measures their interests and strengths. Then, it provides a detailed list of potential careers that the student might find great success in.
- Identify the best-fit institution that meets student's postsecondary goals
- Connect students with opportunities in skill-based learning
- Enrollment assistance.
- Fiancial aid assitance.
- Pick college classes
- Talk to a high school counselor or college advisor
- Online Tutoring for K-12 by Experienced Certified Teachers or College Faculty
- Test Preparation (PSAT/SAT/ACT, AP, STAAR, EOC)
- Special Education and 504 Consultanting
- Student Behavior and Discipline
BUSINESS ORGANIZATION
Ideation for Break Through Potential began in September 2021, and a soft opening in mid-October 2021. In four weeks, I had five clients reach out and pay for services. During the first week of November, I received a client requiring so much assistance I stopped actively seeking clients. Additionally, an in-kind donor offered to redesign my website and brand the company. As Owner and CEO, I ran all the backend operations and hired a team consisting of 1099 employees. In short, if there is a position in a school, I have a team member with experience in that area. In fact, in our first month, over 60% of our team had twenty-five or more years of experience, while 75% had at least ten years. This is one of the most well-experienced educators with a wealth of knowledge to help students.
Additionally, the BTP team consists of fully-certified educators or experienced collegiate faculty. The roles our team serves:
- Principals
- High School Guidance Counselors
- College Counselors
- College Advisors
- Approximately 20 teacher tutors and more than a hundred subject areas
- Essay Writing Specialist
- Instructional Coach
- Literacy Specialist
- Special Education Diagnostician/ARD Specialist
- Special Education Teacher (range of experience from low to high functioning and emotionally disturbed)
- Special Education Transitionalist
- 504/Special Education Specialists
- College Essay Writing Coach
- College Financial Aid Specialist
- Test Prep Instructors (PSAT/SAT/ACT/AC/TSI/AP/EO
- Mental Health Counselor
- Organization and Success Skills
In addition to being experienced, our entire team comprises certified educators or collegiate faculty that have worked with students in their roles. All of our team members are 1099 employees. The college consulting market is thriving, especially now, with changes in admissions criteria and merit-based scores, and an investment in a new approach has the potential to surpass top college consulting firms.
PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS
Pearson - Accelerated Pathways & GED Works
Pearson is one of the world's leading producers of educational materials and offers a variety of programs, including Accelerated Pathways, which gives students the ability to earn college credit at lower costs than most higher education institutions. Students can take courses through Break Through Potential, and I have received demands from families when certain classes are unavailable to their students at school. These are most commonly AP and Dual Credit courses. For some students, taking college-level courses is part of their strategic plan to achieve their higher education goals.
Education Alliances was built on the idea that a family's financial circumstance should not predestine the future of youth. Pearson's Accelerated Pathways is an opportunity for my nonprofit organization to pay the cost of college for low-income families. Additionally, Pearson offers GED Works, their high school alternative diploma program, which we will provide at no charge. Pearson is currently developing industry certification courses to which we will have early access as current partners.
Workforce Solutions Earn and Learn
We are collaborating with a Senior Business Advisor at Workforce Solutions in Katy, Texas. We will offer our students opportunities to earn income while developing career-related skills. This will benefit our students and expand the efforts already being made at Workforce Solutions. Additionally, this collaboration is yielding our next partnership with a work outreach program named Next Generation.
NCCER Master Teacher
We are working with an NCCER Master Teacher to develop an E-Learning course that will prepare students to become certified in roofing. Additionally, Master Teachers certify individuals as teachers if they have the prerequisite credentials and experience. Break Through Potential will offer this second course we are collaborating on Through Potential in the future.
Stukent
We have just begun collaborating with Stukent, but our discussions are exciting! Break Through Potential will have the opportunity to influence Stukent's High School All Access High School Program, and we are looking to develop our college E-Learning courses. Students can participate in live sessions with our teachers or work through self-paced modules we are discussing creating with Stukent.
TrueWorks Roofing
TrueWorks Roofing understands the challenges of a shrinking workforce, and together with Education Alliances, we envision an online platform with pipelines for every pathway. These pipelines will begin with our grassroots efforts.
Volunteer Houston
Break Through Potential has become a Star Member of Volunteer Houston and is building a company volunteer team where students can easily access opportunities. Because Volunteer Houston has so many options, this is a strategy for hands-on experience in an aligned job market or used for comparison.
HAPPENING NOW
Studies show the human brain is evolving due to its response to new technologies. Teenagers literally process the world differently due to more stimuli; this is part of why students have difficulty writing authentic college essays. It is not that they lack depth; instead, they do not consciously connect cause and effect because short interactions still result in profound experiences. Understanding the science behind the problem, Break Through Potential developed a solution with a four-year high school program that coaches students on how to innovate their applications. Rather than a product of reflection, college applications become a proactive summation of a strategic journey.
- In the next four weeks, we will roll out our first social media marketing funnel targeting clients with college-bound children in the eighth or ninth grade to transform how students apply for college.
- The amount of money we can raise will have a direct relationship with how many clients we will be able to take on.
- Pearson is currently building our unique landing page, and we are meeting on October 17, 2022, to discuss the rollout. Part of the partnership with Pearson includes our biography on their website, which will be a marketing opportunity.
- We will be using social media to market the GED Works program by offering three individuals the program for free.
- Next week, we are meeting with UpSkill Houston, a prominent nonprofit organization dedicated to placing technical school graduates in high-demand jobs. Via the nonprofit organization, we hope to establish a pipeline with their organization to strengthen the foundation of our mission.
OUR NEEDS
Break Through Potential and Education Alliances run in tandem but have independent focuses. Because some prefer the type of organization they give to, I wanted to share the basics of both because their missions are the same. Break Through Potential focuses on the instructional piece of planning for higher education. Education Alliances aims to develop a community network of organizations, programs, job opportunities, and experiences in a central location according to the pathway all students can access. Moreover, Education Alliances achieve social justice goals by providing equitable access to opportunities that build college and career readiness.
Our needs include the following:
- New websites with API and portal capabilities.
- Hiring full-time employees including but not limited to someone that can: (1) oversee the tutoring program and update the CRM daily; (2) maintain the websites; (3) write grants on behalf of students and organizations, (4) marketing manager that can develop strategies, construct plans based on analytics, and update our social media; (4) a financial manager/accountant; (5) contract legal work; (6) office management generalist that can perform duties that occur in various offices including HR, payroll, customer service, operations, and administrative assistant; (7) IT assistance.
- Costs of marketing
- Costs to offer free college courses to low-income students
- Costs to provide free educational services like tutoring to low-income students
- Monthly fixed fees for technology that support business operations.
- Developing E-Learning courses