In 1994, Aaron Lieberman, a student at Yale University, along with a classmate, began the program Jumpstart. They began this program with only 15 college students, or corps members. Now there are over 1600 corps members helping over 6,000 children nationwide. Jumpstart works with 44 colleges and universities in the country and the number continues to grow.
Jumpstart is a preparatory program for 3 to 5 year-olds to help their transition into kindergarten. Jumpstart’s three main goals are intensive one-on-one adult-child interaction, inspiring college students to become future teachers and leaders within education, as well as equip them with leadership abilities, and involving the families and parents of Jumpstart children.
Jumpstart also provides opportunities for career advancement. Meghan Schumacher, a 23 year-old Minnesota native and a graduate of the College of St. Benedict with a degree in Communication, came to Boston in the summer of 2002 to volunteer as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Jumpstart. She has been site manager of the Jumpstart program at UMass Boston since August 2003 and is running the program through its second year of being based at UMass Boston.
Schumacher recruits, trains, and supervises 38 students at UMB. Most of these students have work-study and do Jumpstart twice a week in the afternoons with a team of other UMass students. There are two teams at Nazareth preschool in Jamaica Plain, one team at Dimock Preschool in Roxbury, and another at Escuelita Boriken in the South End. Each of these teams has approximately 8 to 10 students and each student works one-on-one with a child throughout the entire school year.
“A lot of what we encourage in Jumpstart is ‘learning through play,’ says Schumacher. “It is shown that children develop faster when they are engaged and interested in their activities. The corps members provide the best environment for them to learn and enhance their language, literacy, and social skills.”
Schumacher continues, “A lot of the college students come into Jumpstart not knowing what to expect and leave a changed person from what they’ve experienced. For those reasons, I enjoy what I do. I love seeing that connection and that change in both children and college students. It’s been a good year.” After participating in Jumpstart, many corps members choose to continue their involvement with the program. Some members participate in Jumpstart for a second year. There is also a program exclusively for Jumpstart alumni after graduating college to teach in a Head Start program for two years and receive a stipend in addition to their salary.
Jumpstart has sites at other colleges and universities throughout Boston, including Tufts University, Suffolk University, Emerson College, Bridgewater State College, and Colleges of the Fenway. There are also sites in Rhode Island and Ohio.
To learn more about Jumpstart and how you can become involved, you can visit the Jumpstart office, located on the fourth floor of Wheatley, next to the Student Life Office. You can also visit their website at www.jstart.org or e-mail [email protected]. Jumpstart has also set up a supplies donation online where people can make donations of materials for the under resourced Jumpstart preschools. That website is www.wishlist.craigslist.org.
