Dear Reader,

As we begin a new year, I want to start by saying thank you — and by sharing why I feel so hopeful about where Barrier Breakers is headed.

In 2025, because of your generosity, we raised over $86,000 to support first-generation and low-income students navigating college, graduate school, and early career pathways. That support allowed us to do something we’re deeply proud of: not just grow, but grow with intention.

What follows is a snapshot of how your giving has translated into real, tangible progress.

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A Clearer Focus: Long-Term Career Pathways

One of the most important things we did this year was name what has long been true of our work.

Barrier Breakers® is no longer just supporting students through college applications or law school advising. We are building long-term career pathways across industries that carry students from high school, through college, into graduate school, and through the transition into early career.

To support that vision, our work is now organized around five career verticals:

• Law
• Healthcare
• Business & Finance
• STEM & Engineering
• Environmental & Sustainability

These verticals help us do three critical things better:

• connect students to mentors aligned with their career interests,
• create internship, shadowing, and exposure opportunities by industry, and
• build graduate school partnerships that ensure students continue receiving support well beyond college.

This structure allows us to be both more strategic and more personal — meeting students where they are, and staying with them as they grow.

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Turning Generosity Into Stronger Student Care

Your giving in 2025 directly enabled one of the most tangible changes we’ve made: adding a Student Support Coordinator to our team.

This role allows us to dramatically increase how often we check in with students and ensure no one falls through the cracks:

• all undergraduate and first-year graduate students now receive monthly touchpoints, and
• graduate students further along in their programs receive quarterly check-ins.

For first-generation students especially, these consistent touchpoints make a real difference — helping reduce disengagement during transitions, maintaining momentum, and reminding students that they are not navigating these systems alone.

This is one of those behind-the-scenes investments that may not always be visible — but it is foundational to student success. And it happened because of you.

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A Model Others Are Betting on Too

As we’ve strengthened our internal capacity, we’ve also seen growing external validation of this work.

We were recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the Camelback Fellowship, which provides not only funding, but dedicated coaching and organizational development support as we continue to scale responsibly.

Being selected for Camelback is meaningful to us because it reflects confidence — confidence in our leadership, our strategy, and our long-term vision for impact. It reinforces that Barrier Breakers® is building something durable, thoughtful, and worth investing in.

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Looking Ahead

We’re entering this year with:

• a clearer strategic framework,
• stronger student support systems,
• expanding partnerships across education and industry, and
• a growing community of people who believe in this work.

I’m incredibly grateful that you are part of that community. Your support has helped transform ideas into infrastructure — and vision into action.

One additional way many in our community support this work is by referring families who are able to invest in advising — which helps us ensure that for every student who pays, we’re able to support a low-income student at no cost.

Thank you for believing in Barrier Breakers, and in the students at the center of everything we do.

With deep appreciation,

Sydney

👉🏽 Donate here to help us reach more students​
https://givebutter.com/firstgen

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