Our Impact, Our Service

Team Determination at Jumpstart at American University volunteers at their partner preschool in South East DC, implementing session twice per week. I am the Team Leader for Team Determination, and it has truly been a great experience working with my team this semester. Our partner children have shown us time and time again that they are truly filled with amazing potential that is just waiting to be cultivated and developed. Each time we go in and do session, we wonder if what we're teaching is sinking in. Are they understanding the stories that we read to them? Are they actually comprehending the vocabulary and remembering each word? Are the various skills that we focus on developing in them? The whole reason that we do what we do is so that our students grow in their abilities and are prepared for going to school. But it can be difficult sometimes to measure the impact that we have.

During one of our Circle Times during Session a couple of weeks ago, we did a word clue game in which I gave students clues about vocabulary words that I was thinking of and they had to guess the word. I wasn't sure how it would go, if they would remember the vocabulary words or not. I hoped that someone would at least know one of the words. I was utterly surprised, because it turned out that two different students remembered two different vocabulary words and were able to name them. The words that they were able to name were "harmonica" and "crib." It was especially exciting that the one student was able to name the word "harmonica" because we had not only read this word in Oonga Boonga, one of our core storybooks, but we had also taught more about musical instruments during Let's Find Out About It when we made bottle shakers. So to know that our constant repetition of words and meanings and the ways that we demonstrate the meanings of words actually teaches them and causes them to understand and remember the various words was a great feeling. Sometimes it can feel like we are repeating things and saying things and demonstrating things and that the children are not really paying attention or retaining anything. It was so great to know that this is not true, and that what we are doing is actually having a pretty significant impact on the students and they are learning and growing in the development of certain skills.

Such moments in Jumpstart are not always common, but are certainly the kinds of moments that renew motivation and give us encouragement in what we are doing. I think that in Jumpstart we really live for those moments, and when they happen it is the best feeling. This past Saturday, we had an all-Corps event at Howard University and a couple of guest speakers shared about the impact that Jumpstart is having on the District of Columbia. One of the speakers was the program director at Sunshine Early Learning Center, and what he shared was also very encouraging in the work that we do. He shared some specific instances in which Jumpstart Corps members were working one-on-one with some of the most difficult students and that he saw a visible difference in those students' behavior and development during their time with the Corps members and even following after.

It is great to see the impact we are having within our own classroom where we serve, and then to hear from someone else who specializes in Early Childhood Education about the kind of impact that we have gives a greater sense of confirmation that what we are doing is making a difference.

~Becca P
Team Leader
Team Determination