Achieve Miami

During Achieve saturdays, the organization pairs elementary students with high school students from various miami-dade schools, fostering connections through reading, writing and other engaging activities. The elementary students, referred to as "little buddies" bond with their high school mentors, or "big buddies," which can lead to academic gains and social emotional learning. We conducted 15 Achieve saturdays across four elementary sites, bringing together over 1,000 committed big buddy volunteers representing more than 45 high schools across Miami with over 490 elementary school students, and distributed 2,200 books to the students. The Achieve summer program offers a six-week academic project based learning experience to more than 440 public elementary school students. The program includes targeted enrichments in art, stem, wellness, culinary and music. Seventy-nine high school students also participated in a meaningful, paid summer internship experience that not only harnessed their leadership potential, but also imparted essential skills for helping them transition into becoming young professionals and further prepare them for college. They also earned community service hours for leading enrichments for the elementary students, collaborating with additional high school volunteers. Achieve music delivered after-school music classes to over 380 students from second through eight-grade students at six elementary schools throughout miami-dade county. The program encompasses a variety of different offerings, including voice, keyboards, percussion, band, music theory, and live performances. The primary goal is for students to nurture a passion and love for music while building essential qualities such as self-control, self-confidence, attentive listening skills, and verbal intelligence through active participation in our music program. Achieve high school includes the Achieve scholars program, which provided 310 public high school students with year-round college and career readiness training, including weekly tutoring to prepare them for the act test, financial literacy education, college application workshops, and personalized leadership development (47 students became part of the junior advisory board). After completing the scholars program, 38 students transitioned this year to the alumni program, receiving ongoing support during their freshman year of college to ensure their continued success. Achieve high school also includes the Achieve club, which provides community service and leadership opportunities to over 1,200 volunteer students in grades 9-12 throughout miami-dade. In 2021, the organization partnered with the Miami foundation to launch Miami connected, an initiative aimed at providing free broadband internet access and digital literacy to individuals in Miami lacking these resources. This year we continued working with 13 organizations that received digital equity grants from the Miami foundation and are providing digital literacy and digital navigation services for high-need populations throughout miami-dade. The program has positively impacted over 106,000 families, ensuring broader access to digital resources and skills within the community. The teacher accelerator program (tap) creates a clear pathway for professionals with bachelor's degrees and college seniors - not in the field of education - to graduate and enter the teaching profession. College seniors and career changers take a one-semester undergraduate course focusing on education foundations and teacher certification support. The course is followed by a paid summer internship through Achieve summer where tap participants will teach before landing a full-time teaching position with miami-dade county public schools. Tap in its pilot year recruited 51 teacher candidates who received 256 hours of professional development; 90% felt confident to teach following the tap experience.