Kevin Xiong
Breakthrough Student, Harvard College, c/o 2017
Remarks
It is an honor to stand on this stage tonight and talk to you all about a program that has made a profound
difference in my life.
I often tell others that I became a part of the Breakthrough family right out of the womb, as my brother
David was a Breakthrough student as well. We come from an immigrant family that has always believed
that hard work and advancement through education are the most important ingredients of success.
My brother David has always said that Breakthrough transformed him in his early life. Thanks to
Breakthrough, he went from a mediocre to straight-A student, and, after high school, became the first
person in my family to attend college at Boston College. Today, at the tender age of 29, he is a Vice
President and portfolio manager at JP Morgan. He says that he chose this career because in the summer of
sixth grade, he took a Breakthrough course on math in the stock market, in which he learned to add
fractions and decimals through managing a mock portfolio.
Growing up, hearing about his transformative Breakthrough experience and watching him return to
Breakthrough as one of the first student-turned-teachers of the program, I desperately wanted to be a part
of this program as well.
So seven years ago, when I was in sixth grade, I enrolled as a student in Breakthrough and continued the
cycle. At Breakthrough, forty inspirational, diligent, and spirited college and high school students
committed their entire summers to instill in us students the desire to attend and graduate from college. At
Breakthrough, I read Kurt Vonnegut, performed a recorder-violin duet with director Sarah Joslyn, and
delivered a student testimonial at Celebration. After two summers, I grew from a quiet and soft-spoken
middle school kid into a student with high expectations – for my teachers, for my peers, and for myself. At
the end of my last summer, I told my advisor Chelsea that I wanted to come back and be a teacher one
day. Breakthrough, for me, wasn’t just about the academics. At Breakthrough, I found self-confidence, a
group of college-bound friends, and a love for learning.
The summer of my freshman year, without hesitation, I applied to be a math and writing junior teacher at
Breakthrough and was paired with a collaborating teacher, Kayla Morse. With Kayla, I formed a special
bond and learned how to prepare and teach lessons that emphasized rigor and student engagement. The
next summer, I was rehired as a full-time math and writing teacher.
For the past three summers, I have dedicated over 1000 hours to teaching at Breakthrough. Yet 1000 is
just a number. It is within these 1000 hours that I saw my students, through hard work and unwavering
persistence, make significant gains in pre-algebra. In these 1000 hours, I have seen even the shyest
students come out of their shells, perform cheers, and dominate the basketball court. And perhaps the
best moment during these 1000 hours was receiving a letter from my advisee, Logan, explaining that he
had found a new love for writing, a subject area in which he had always struggled. He concluded the letter
with “I want to be a Breakthrough teacher too someday because I like to help people.” A number like 1000
– in itself – is only a number. But it can entail the immeasurable.
Meanwhile, for the past four years I have been part of the Breakthrough high school program. Amee, the
high school program director, has guided me every step of the way – course selection, SATs, college
applications, scholarships, the list goes on. It is because of Breakthrough that I will attend Harvard
College this fall.
Breakthrough has taught me what it means to work hard. Working hard means holding high expectations
for myself. It means persistence, having a capacity to transform fatigue into a new reservoir of energy. It
means losing sleep and vitamin D in pursuit of the perfect lesson plan knowing that it just might make a
complicated math concept “click,” knowing that it just might lead a kid to develop a new favorite subject,
knowing that it just might introduce a curious student to a fascinating future career.
Before I conclude my speech, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t take a moment to thank all the individuals at
Breakthrough who have made an indelible, transformative impact on my family and me – all the teachers,
my college-bound Breakthrough classmates, and Amee, Elissa, Rupal, Danny, and everyone else on the
Breakthrough staff.
Thank you.
Breakthrough Greater Boston
Kevin Xiong | Springfest ’13 | Remarks