Breakthrough New Haven

Breakthrough New Haven, an affiliate of the Breakthrough Collaborative, is a tuition-free, year-round program for highly motivated middle school students with limited educational opportunities. The program seeks to prepare these students for challenging, college-preparatory high schools. Once accepted to Breakthrough New Haven, students make a two-year commitment during middle school, which includes a rigorous academic Summer Program, educational enrichment classes in our After-School Program, and comprehensive high school placement guidance.

Breakthrough New Haven students are residents of New Haven and/or attend middle school in New Haven. Our students are motivated and have demonstrated the ability and desire to succeed academically. We recruit and accept students into our program in the Fall of their seventh grade year. During the past several years, our students have come from a wide variety of public and parochial middle schools, including John S. Martinez School, Edgewood Magnet School, East Rock Magnet School, St. Martin de Porres Academy, and Sheridan Academy for Excellence. Upon graduating from middle school and completing our program, our students have subsequently enrolled in a variety of college preparatory high school programs, including Choate Rosemary Hall, Hopkins School, Hamden Hall, Laurelton Hall, Mercy High School, Notre Dame, Sacred Heart Academy, and the Sound School.

During both the Summer Program and the After School Program, high school-age tutors provide one-on-one academic support to Breakthrough students who either experience difficulty in mastering certain academic challenges or who have demonstrated an ability to advance more rapidly through the curriculum than his or her peers. The leaders of Breakthrough New Haven are: Michael Van Leesten, Director of Breakthrough New Haven / Math Teacher (203.397.1001 x361), and Errol Saunders, Assistant Director of Breakthrough / History Teacher (203.397.1001 x381).

Contact Info for Breakthrough New Haven: breakthrough@hopkins.edu or 203-397-1001 (x361 or x381).

New Haven Science Fair

Both IGPPEB students and faculty will serve as mentors to high school students at several New Haven high schools to enable them to participate in the annual New Haven Science Fair in early May at Woolsey Hall at Yale. These projects can be carried out at Yale and will illustrate quantitative approaches in biology. Students and faculty will also serve as judges for the Fair. Volunteer mentors and judges are the key to success of the Fair.

"Dive With A Researcher" Field Trips

The "Dive With A Researcher" (DWAR) program, led by Prof. David Gruber from CUNY Baruch College, gives volunteers an opportunity to become more knowledgeable about coral reef conservation issues and efforts while helping collect and archive data during underwater dives. A key part of DWAR is the "Function of Fluorescent Proteins in Coral" program at the Little Cayman Research Center. As part of this expedition, volunteers assist with research to isolate fluorescent proteins from reef inhabitants and understand the function of fluorescent proteins on coral reefs. Participants conduct both day and night dives to examine fluorescent organisms and are taught molecular biological methods to clone and sequence fluorescent proteins and other genes used to molecularly characterize the organisms. It is possible that participants will find new fluorescent organisms from which new fluorescent proteins will be isolated and used for IGPPEB research.

Exhibitions and After School Programs at Museums and Aquariums

IGPPEB faculty and students will work with David Heiser from the Peabody Museum and IGPPEB associated faculty member, David Gruber, from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, to develop exhibitions that highlight exciting IGPPEB research.

David Gruber also assisted in the preparation and implementation of the first national fluorescent coral exhibit at the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, CT. This exhibit is based on his book Aglow in the Dark and received "glowing" reviews. IGPPEB faculty will support and expand these exhibitions. A recent review provides the following enthusiastic summary:

The Fluorescent Coral Exhibit is striking in its appearance and is designed to engage visitors and heighten their sense of wonder when it comes to the science of fluorescence. Upon entering the new walk-through exhibit, visitors learn about fluorescence and its presence in their everyday lives, the dwindling populations of coral and the need for conservation, and most importantly, the ways in which fluorescence is being used in important research projects for finding cures and treatments for Alzheimer's and cancer. The use of fluorescent proteins to label specific cellular and organismal components has been heralded as one of the most important biomedical discoveries in decades.

IGPPEB faculty and students will also serve as mentors and guest teachers for Evolutions, a science enrichment program for disadvantaged middle and high-school students at New Haven's Peabody Museum at Yale University. These students are interested in science, serious about school, and determined to go to college. Guest lectures will include science demonstrations, discussions of careers in science, and pointers on how to get into selective colleges.

Bio-fluorescence Presentation at Middle- and High-Schools

Prof. Marc Zimmer from our partner institution, Connecticut College, will lead a program where IGPPEB faculty and students give presentations at middle- and high-schools throughout Connecticut describing bio-fluorescence.

A highlight of these presentations will be donations of "glowing pets", genetically engineered zebra fish, which glow because they express fluorescent proteins. We will also lead the students in a hands-on genetic engineering experiment in which the students create fluorescent bacteria.