“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Every year American University hosts a day of service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. While many people think of MLK Day as a day off from school and work, AU’s Center for Community Service & Engagement wants you to think of it as a day on, not off. A day where we uphold the values taught to us by the great visionary King, and follow in his footsteps by providing direct service to our communities. AU brings together about 300 alumni, community partners, staff and students to give back to their DC home. 

While many volunteers from AU were sent out into the community, a small group stayed behind. At 10AM a large gaggle of children burst into the Mary Graydon Center. These young students from the Boys & Girls Clubs, accompanied by their parents, had given up their day off from school to give back. With the guidance of AU alumni, the students put together emergency kits, Nobel Peace Prizes, scarves, dream catchers, and preschool literacy kits. 

Jumpstart DC at American University was excited to be able to participate in the day of service. Jumpstart had a table set up where the youth colored the images on note cards that the adults then helped compile into literacy kits for preschoolers in local underserved communities. These flash cards have an image with the accompanying word, and are used by the preschool students to help them practice writing their letters and words. The words they practice are vocabulary from books used in their classrooms by our Jumpstart Corps Members. 

Beyond community service, the Jumpstart table was abounding with community engagement and networking. Alumni volunteers discussed with current students old tales of American University’s housing and the secret past of the Tavern, while exchanging business cards with each other and trading traveling tips. 

Jumpstart was proud to be able to contribute to the MLK Day of Service and in creating a welcoming environment to encourage community building. A day well spent!

-DeLancey Lane

Winter is my least favorite season. And today doubly so. Our school had a two hour delay which meant team planning instead of a classroom meet and greet. While I am returning to the same classroom, I am excited for my new team members to meet our students. Last semester it was just me and my team leader; now I have two team mates and an experienced team leader. My hope is that the four of us can more effectively run a Jumpstart session. Only the best for our students.

When we finally do jump into our classroom we will read A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats. In my past experiences with Jumpstart, Session 5 marks a turning point for the students. By this point students understand the Jumpstart program. Not only does the session flow more easily, but vocabulary and reading comprehension really starts to bloom. A lot of things are changing this semester, and this session, but I remain hopeful that A Letter to Amy is our turning point.

-Amalia Mendoza

Jumpstart Spring session will restart this week, and our afternoon team is ecstatic to return to the classroom. We will be continuing session 5 with the book “A Letter to Amy” by Ezra Jack Keats. This is the unit on friendship, which is a critical topic during this age, as children learn to communicate and interact with their peers. “A Letter to Amy” addresses issues of effective communication methods and emotional recognition. Much like the majority of Jumpstart core storybooks, “A Letter to Amy” introduces foreign concepts and words to the children. All of the things introduced are pertinent to their future growth in both school and life. This book gives an introduction into the mailing system, which is becoming outdated, but still relevant to connecting grandparents. In the book, Peter also has to take in account the feelings of others. He understands that Amy is most likely feeling anger towards him after he knocked her down. Emotional recognition is an essential skill to develop in order to empathize with others as well as accurately display your own emotions. Through this book and continued active group discussions and play, the classroom serves as an open area for creativity and learning.

My hope for Jumpstart in the upcoming semester is to have even more engaging conversations with the students. While most participate and show enthusiasm, I hope we can extend the same levels of excitement to the few who remain passive. I understand that they are going through a period of extreme changes and developments; as a Corps Member, I plan to encourage them to ask questions, interact with peers, and seek out new information about themselves and the world. I can foresee great excitement when we reenter the classroom and pick up on session implementations. 

-Bridgette Pressley

Wishes for the Future

As we come to a close on our winter break, I’m filled with excitement and wonder as to what changes I’ll find in my Jumpstart classroom. Sure, there will be students who I could have sworn were shorter and changes in interests that seemed as though they’d last forever, but the subtler changes that I will see thrill me on a whole other level. New vocabulary, new conversations, and new ideas on the meaning of sharing are just beyond the reach of those school doors. With these feelings in mind, I’ve thought of wishes for the future for my students.

For my students, I first wish for the idea of sharing that I saw being planted during the previous semester sprout and grow fruitful in the duration of this semester. Their emotional well-being is dependent on their ever changing relationships with their peers. If they make good progress on developing the idea of “sharing” at this stage in their lives, it will only become easier and easier for them to cooperate and establish a well-balanced relationship with others.

Secondly, I wish that I can continue to provide an energetic session for my students in order to engage them to the best of my ability. That means making my Jumpstart materials with the amount of energy that I want my students to have during session. That means leaving my stresses at the door of my room in order to not let my students’ experiences be hindered because of my personal life. They deserve my full attention, and I owe it to them to provide them with this.

Lastly, I wish that my students will be captured with this love of learning. I hope to continue to see students pull books off the shelves and practice reading by themselves. I hope to see even more engagement during Circle Time as we figure out rhyming words and sing our silly songs. I hope to hear how they connect their own lives to the lives of the characters in our stories. If, as a team, my peers and I can help our students come to want a life full of endless learning, I would be able to live my life knowing that this was one of the best experiences that I will ever have.

So as I make materials and think of ways to better my students’ Jumpstart experience, these are the wishes and hopes that I keep in mind. Together, my team and I will do our best to see these hopes realized, and these dreams achieved. I can’t wait to go back.