Life After Jumpstart

As summer quickly approaches, I have been thinking about what I want to be doing this summer and applying for a few camp positions. Applying for jobs obviously includes creating a resume and writing about prior work experience and in doing so I have realized just how much I have learned and gained from volunteering for Jumpstart and serving the preschool children I have grown to love. I really appreciate that Jumpstart includes training, hands-on work in the classroom, and experience working as a team. All three of these components of Jumpstart are essential for the volunteering experience and also generalize to important strengths outside of a Jumpstart environment.

The training is really intensive and teaches the corps members and team leaders the exact expectations that Jumpstart has for them as they work in the classroom. We learn the proper way to run the classroom and to read, but we also learn about early childhood education to help us better understand the little people we are working with. Being trained in early childhood education creates a really strong basis for all volunteers to use to interact with the children and understand what they are and are not capable of. In addition, volunteers are trained in communication with families which is really important for working with the children and seeing their parents after session, but also provides us with strong skills for interpersonal communication in other areas of our lives. The training also teaches us the proper way to work as a team member in our groups so we work together cohesively and easily. This teamwork is incredibly important since the groups spend so much time together. Our site manager even encourages us to have team bonding time to learn more about each other and work even better together. As a team, I think we work really well and it helps us when we are working together in the classroom. Furthermore, the team work I have learned through Jumpstart will strongly benefit me as I move on to other work experiences. Most of all, I think Jumpstart teaches flexibility. We learn to be flexible with the children we work with so we can mold the lesson plan to match the child’s abilities. In addition, since we are working with a public charter school, we sometimes have to be flexible with the schedule and the people we are working with.

I really appreciate Jumpstart and AmeriCorps for creating such a strong program that really gives their volunteers experience and skills to implement Jumpstart’s values in the classroom and in the outside world.

~Sophia Suarez-Friedman

Corps Member

Team Learning