emerging leaders and ADVOCATES for education

Our Summer Program Dates occur from June 16 to August 8, 2025 (Monday through Friday)

The program is 8-weeks long, which includes Pre-service Orientation, Student Program, and Wrap-up Weeks. Hours are from 8 am to 5 pm during student program weeks, and slightly fewer hours during Pre-Service Orientation and Wrap-up Week.

To be eligible for the AmeriCorps education award, you are required to complete a minimum of 300 service hours during the summer program.

Attendance to the whole program is mandatory for all Teaching Fellows with no exceptions Please apply ONLY if you are able to commit to the dates.

As of June 2022, Breakthrough Silicon Valley has recently been awarded an AmeriCorps grant to support our summer program. All fellows teaching at our 7th to 9th summer programs this year will also enroll as AmeriCorps members.

In addition to the time commitment and role expectations as explained, there are additional eligibility requirements. Including being minimum 17-years-old, U.S Citizen, U.S. National and proof of lawful permanent residence, possess Social Security Card, High School Diploma and submit to Criminal Background Check which you have to meet in order to enroll in the AmeriCorps Program.

In addition to the opportunity to gain hands-on teaching experience, members will grow both personally and professionally, earn a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award to pay for a range of educational expenses, and be provided with a stipend.

We accept applications from both current and incoming college students, or recent graduates.

No. Teaching Fellows come with varying levels of teaching and tutoring experience. We look for applicants who demonstrate leadership ability and are willing to tackle the steep learning curve with enthusiasm and an open mind.

Your greatest resource will be your colleagues, who will collaborate, support, and inspire you throughout the summer.

Through its close partnership with the San Jose Unified (SJUSD) and Franklin-McKinley (FMSD) School Districts, Breakthrough Silicon Valley’s programs are hosted at various sites throughout the districts.

The summer programs usually take place at campus in and around San Jose, with locations varying from year to year. You will be notified of the location once the location has been determined, usually in April.

Yes. The program will be 100% in-person in 2025. Teaching Fellows are required to be available locally starting on the first day of Pre-Service Orientation on June 16, and will be teaching on campus every day.

Our Wrap-up week (August 4 - August 8, 2025) will also be in-person.

Teaching Fellows are responsible for making their own housing arrangement. Some of the options that out-of-area Teaching Fellows used before include intern housing at San Jose State University and Airbnb. Our team can provide neighborhood and transportation information if needed.

Yes, we can help with carpooling if you will not have access to a car. There are usually enough Teaching Fellows with their own vehicles to support those without a car. We can also provide you information about public transportation.

In the application, we ask you to list which core subjects you are “excited,” “able to,” and “not willing” to teach. Our staff looks at these preferences, in combination with the needs of the program and offers positions accordingly.

Unfortunately, this is not possible because of the commitment you will be making with us this summer. In order to ensure the quality of instruction for our students and for you to grow as a teacher, we ask you to dedicate your full energy to your work at Breakthrough. You will be free on the weekends, but keep in mind that to be a successful teacher, you must put in more hours than those spent on-site for grading, planning, etc.

All Teaching Fellows attend Pre-service Orientation during which you attend training related to AmeriCorps, and learn practical skills including lesson planning, classroom management, student engagement, assessment, plus a variety of topics to prepare you for the roles as a teacher, mentor, and role model.

Additionally, each Teaching Fellow receives the support of an Instructional Coach who is a veteran teacher usually of the subject that you teach. Through professional development, classroom observations, lesson plan reviews, and coaching, your Instructional Coach ensures the quality of your instructions and develops your teaching, lesson planning, and classroom management skills. There will also be weekly professional development led by the Dean of Faculty.

You do! Breakthrough Silicon Valley has a unique approach to curriculum design where our staff decides which academic skills and topics need to be covered in the curriculum and then gives Teaching Fellows the freedom to design their own lesson plans. For example, all English classes will work on paragraph writing. However, that skill can be taught through a variety of contexts such as Harry Potter novels, Harlem Renaissance poetry, or Shakespeare.

For academic electives, you can design and teach your own course from scratch. The course you design should be based on your academic background and passion. While each teacher is given the freedom to design course material, your Instructional Coach will review daily lesson plans and give final approval.

As a Teaching Fellow, you serve as a teacher, a mentor, and a role model. You will teach one core subject and one elective that you will propose throughout the summer. There is an opportunity for you to submit your preference after you are accepted to the program.

Teaching Fellows develop lesson plans, homework assignments and classroom activities with support from their instructional coaches. You also develop and conduct assessments, and take charge of certain data collection tasks including attendance tracking, assessment scoring and entry.

Another key role of Teaching Fellows is to serve as a Crew leader. You will lead or co-lead a crew of between 10 and 20 students, which will meet daily for community building, extra-curricular activities, and planning for participation in site-wide activities like All School Meeting, Summer Olympics, etc. Inside and outside of the classroom, you build rapport with your students, support their academic growth and social emotional learning, share your educational journey, expand their horizon and inspire their educational aspiration.