My First Few Weeks as a Corps Member

February 5, 2015

My First Few Weeks As a Corps Member

I just began working inside the classrooms a few weeks ago, and let me say, the experience has already began to blow me away. I heard about jumpstart through a friend of mine and it sounded like a profound opportunity, and so soon enough, I decided to apply. As I was training over break to begin in the classrooms, I realized just HOW big of a difference this organization is making. The length to which the trainings taught me in itself was huge, and I couldn’t wait to start!

My first day, I was feeling many different emotions. Excited, nervous, and pressure to perform the best I could because I realized the job I was doing and how it truly affects the children. Despite my fears, I was extremely eager to meet everyone. I got to the site, the staff was warm and welcoming and the children were so sweet! Surely, my first day was not absolute perfection, but it was so fun! I figured out what I need to work on and figured out what I’m really good at. I left that day so happy that I did a job a well done and really connected with the class.

My team is always a huge support system! I can always count on them for helpful tips and suggestions, which makes our session truly, a work in progress (not in a bad way, but a positive way). As Corps members and a team, WE can always be improving and I love that about jumpstart. Through what we do to help the children, they are improving and so are we!

I would like to reflect to one specific session just last week. My reading group and I were sitting in the usual spot on the carpet, talking about the cover of the book. It was “read to reconstruct” day, my first ever read to reconstruct day and I was a bit nervous but I had my questions ready and I had prepared myself well. I said to myself “here we go”. Before I could really get a sentence out, the children began pointing out parts of the book they remembered, by looking at the cover. I was not only impressed, but also happy that the book interested them! I asked many of my pre-prepared questions and they did such a wonderful job answering them. In those minutes, I felt like I had done a good job! And most of all, I feel like the children were happy and learning something new through the vocab in the book.

Overall, Jumpstart has ALREADY been a life changer. I now know that I want to somehow work with children in my future and I cant wait to see what the rest of the semester has to offer!

Thanks for reading, Friends!