"You have to make your own education in Santa Fe," said Zach Baca, a Santa Fe High School graduate and University of Denver college student who is currently teaching math to eighth-graders at Breakthrough Santa Fe. His point is that students who want to achieve beyond the regular public-school calendar — students who are looking far ahead to college and a professional career — have to grab every opportunity for advanced learning.

And that's what Breakthrough Santa Fe, housed on the Santa Fe Preparatory School campus, offers. Now in its eighth year, the six-week intensive for middle-school students from the public-school system offers four core classes (math, history, science, English) and two electives with class sizes that cap at six students. The program is part of the national Breakthrough Collaborative, which started as Summerbridge in San Francisco in 1978. The students learn lessons that are advanced by at least a school year.

The teachers are students themselves. They may be in their junior or senior year of high school or in college. Seasoned teachers give them a two-week training session about teaching strategies and managing the classroom before they begin. Their youthful energy and insight helps them connect and commit to each of their students. Baca is a math major at the University of Denver, so he teaches math at Breakthrough.

The program — which is free for the students — costs about $216,000 this year and is funded by private citizens, corporate sponsors, and foundation dollars, according to Talia Winokur, executive director of Breakthrough Santa Fe.

She said the program's target demographic is "high-achieving, low-income students who will probably be the first in their family to go to college." She said close to 80 percent of the program's students are eligible for free and reduced lunch within Santa Fe Public Schools.

Andrew Wiggins, an eighth-grader at Ortiz Middle School, said he's in Breakthrough because "It will help us get scholarships to college. The classes are small; you can get help easier." In the public school system, he said, he feels he's part of a food chain due to the large class sizes.

Another eighth-grader, Pricilla Guillen of DeVargas Middle School, said Breakthrough reinforces the idea that "You want to succeed in life. You have a dream that you want to be someone."

Luis Burrola is a Capital High School student who is working toward being someone too. A former Breakthrough student, he is 16. He said he was one of those kids who was heading down the wrong path when his mother corralled him into the program several years ago. He was hooked after day one by "the whole dynamics of the program, that you can relate to the teacher. You're not part of a line of 12 students waiting to ask the teacher for help."

He's working to act as a role model for the kids, and he's learned to respect teachers more now that he's spending some time in their shoes. "We're all exhausted here, and we only do this for a month. Teachers in the schools do it all year long!"

At Breakthrough, he said, "Every student who is here wants to be here." He said he tells his kids, "I expect you guys to succeed."

Breakthrough just initiated a one-week class for each high-school grade that includes essay-writing, remedial math, and college preparatory skills.

"In order to make college a reality these days, students have to work so much harder," Winokur said of the program. "There's not enough opportunities in the public-school system to help motivated kids make it."

Contact Winokur at (505) 795-7517 or visit www.breakthroughsantafe.org for more information.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com