What Are We Here For?

It has been so exciting to begin yet another season of Jumpstart this fall. This is my third season in the Corps and my first season as a team leader. I am so lucky because my preschool site has remained the same throughout all three terms, meaning I get to see the children that I had in the past, and how they have grown and progressed in their education.
Last week, we travelled to our respective preschools to participate in classroom observations. At our program partner, we got the chance to observe how our teachers run the class and to meet all of the children we will be working with over the course of the year. They greeted us in classic 3-year-old style, with wide eyes and bright faces, curious about who we are and why we are coming into their class. After about an hour, we went outside to the playground, where I got to see several of the children I have worked with in the past. “Do you remember me?” I asked. They gave me a blank stare. “I’m Miss Becca. I was in your class last year, in Ms. Z's classroom. Do you remember being in her class?” They nodded their heads, “Yeah!” I am not sure if they actually remember me, but they definitely remember Jumpstart.

Interacting with the teachers, the administrators and the children reminded me of why we are there. The teachers work hard each day to teach the children, feed them, care for them and ensure they are learning and retaining the valuable information that is being taught. The administrators work hard to make sure that everything runs smoothly, on time and in concordance with the center’s mission and goals. Both the teachers and administrators form relationships with the parents to make sure that parents and their children are equally involved in the education process, and to provide support for the parents when they need it, through training and involvement programs. The children are the reason for all of this hard work. It is because the entire staff seeks to give the children the best they can that they work tirelessly day in and day out.

The most important thing at this preschool is the development of the children. It’s why they work so hard, and it’s why we work so hard. As Jumpstart Corps members, we are devoted to providing a supplementary program that provides support for the teachers, the program administrators, the parents and most of all the children. We are the midwives, if you will, of the students’ literacy, language and social development. We work alongside the children to facilitate the development of certain skills, to make it safe and secure for them, and to celebrate their achievements. By implementing session, I believe we also give something extra to the teachers. First of all, we give them a break (it’s not easy working with kids 5 days of the week!), we give them encouragement through our enthusiasm and energy, and we give them new ideas and materials that they can also us.

We have not yet begun to implement session, but I am so excited to see the ways in which we will serve the children, the teachers and the administrators this year. And I can’t wait to see the relationships that we will build with the new children in our classroom.

~Becca
Team Leader
Team Determination

Do Your Service Day

Jumpstart at American University is very excited to be participating in Alpha Phi Omega’s annual Do Your Service Day on November 10th! DYSD is a day that involves many different organizations in the DC community as well as AU students in order to promote the importance of service and giving back. DYSD will be serving communities from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, A Wider Circle, Metro House Overnight, as well as many others. Jumpstart is honored to be a part of the celebration! Every year, APO reaches out to on campus and off campus service organizations in hopes of providing many volunteers to participate in a day of service and aid organizations in the ways that they may need.

Jumpstart will be creating two quilts that will go to two of the Preschools that Jumpstart serves: Apple Tree Institute and Sunshine Early Learning Center. The purpose behind the quilt is to create a visual representation of the connection and community that we have created between our AU students and the students we serve. Over the next few weeks of Jumpstart session, Corps Members will have their students draw and create their squares that will contribute to the quilt. What AU volunteers will contribute will be to create the other half of the quilt and then assemble the finished product. Our teachers, as well as our students, will be presented with a new addition to their classroom. We hope to illustrate our appreciation for our teachers and our pride in our students by creating a lasting memory of the community we create over the year.

Stay tuned for more details and pictures from the event!!

~Selaina Petrou
Volunteer Coordinator

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog!!

Jumpstart is a national early education organization that recruits and trains college students and community Corps members to serve preschool children in low-income neighborhoods.  Our proven curriculum helps children development the language and literacy skills they need to be ready for school, setting them on a path to close the achievement gap before it is too late.  This blog will tell the stories of Corps members serving at Jumpstart DC at American University.  

These stories will be told their own words and will give you a first hand account about life as a Corps member.  Each Corps member (45 in all!) will be posting at least twice over the 2012-2013 school year.  These Corps members are undergraduate and graduate students here at American University, studying a variety of majors.  They have entered into Jumpstart with a diverse education background, ranging from babysitting neighbors and siblings to working in schools and tutoring centers abroad.  Corps members will be discussing their great stories, moments of realization (that "ah-ha!" moment), and ways that they are seeing Jumpstart's core values (learning, determination, connection, joy, and kindess) in their service.  

Jumpstart has been at AU since early March 2011.  We are currently serving at one community based organization and one public charter school.  You can learn more about Jumpstart DC here. 

Be sure to check back frequently!  We can't wait to share our stories with you.

**Please note that the children and teachers' names have been changed to be in accordance with Jumpstart's policies.  Any pictures posted will come directly from the Jumpstart website, Jumpstart's facebook page or Jumpstart DC's facebook page.