Jumpstart your child in reading

Since 1993, Jumpstart has trained nearly 25,000 college students and community volunteers to deliver its year-round program to more than 100,000 preschool children nationwide. Studies show that in low-income neighborhoods, 50 percent of children start school at least two years behind their peers. When children start school late, experts say, they are more likely to stay behind for the rest of their lives and the educational gap only widens over time. Programs like Jumpstart hope to stop the rise in high school dropout rates, countless remediation programs, incarceration and unemployment among low-income students, according to Dixon.

The effort is a win-win situation because preschoolers learn how to read, and Jumpstart undergraduate volunteers gain experience teaching or achieve educational and personal goals by performing community service, Dixon stressed.

“Our early childhood teachers and directors see the value in Jumpstart’s work and the training students receive in working with their children,” Dixon said, adding, “Over time, Jumpstart becomes a built-in pool of eligible future teachers for our centers when looking to fill positions in the education field.”

Jumpstart is delivered through the Corporation for National and Community Service, which is designed to help communities address poverty, the environment, education, and other unmet human needs. Each year, the corporation provides opportunities for more than two million Americans of all ages and backgrounds to serve their communities and country through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America, according to the organization’s website.

Jumpstart has other facilities throughout Queens. St John’s University has five preschools (four in Jamaica and one in Flushing) while York College works with six facilities. There are three in Jamaica; one is located in Rochdale Village and two more at York’s Guy R. Brewer Boulevard campus.

York student Kimberly Hover, a sociology and education major, has worked with Jumpstart at the Armistead location for one year.

“ I find working with the children so fulfilling and rewarding,” Hoover said, adding, “Just watching a child learn to read moves me in such a way that I enjoy going to work with them the next day.”

Jumpstart relies on a national network of dedicated people. At the heart of Jumpstart are the 3,600 college students and community volunteers nationwide who give their time to work with children across the country, according to the website.

At St. John’s University, Miriam Gadlin, the Jumpstart site coordinator, believes that Jumpstart work is meant to supplement the early childhood education major that the school offers.

“Typically in low-income neighborhoods children are likely to start kindergarten 60 percent behind their wealthier peers. When Jumpstart volunteers from our campus serve in their preschools, the adult-child ratio is lowered to 1 to 3. This, along with Jumpstart’s curriculum, allows our volunteers and children to form a caring learning relationship during their 20 weeks together.”

On average, Gadlin added, Jumpstart children improve language and literacy skills by 25 percent, more than a full developmental level. A 2009 study revealed that Jumpstart children showed learning gains that were two to three times larger than other children who were studied.

“The results confirm that Jumpstart children are far better prepared for kindergarten than their peers,” Gadlin said, adding, “Our teachers and families note the shift in their children’s excitement towards reading and writing with Jumpstart at their centers. The long-term effects of Jumpstart are greater than an increase in reading. Children who complete quality early childhood education programs do better in school academically and are less likely to dropout, be arrested, repeat grades, or require special education.”

York College English major and Jumpstart volunteer Tea Bello sees evidence of the program’s success firsthand.

“It’s all about taking the time out to sit with them, read to them, and talk to them,” Bello said.

And Jumpstart teachers and volunteers want the community to know the program exists.

Site managers Dixon and Gadlin have become Jumpstart’s biggest supporters’ on-campus. Both women share examples of Jumpstart’s success everywhere they go; at college club fairs, work-study orientations and at faculty meetings. The women are starting to create a social media presence for Jumpstart initiatives. In the future, a Facebook page and a Twitter account are two methods the site managers plan to use to tell parents and volunteers about Jumpstart’s services. However, so far, word of mouth as been Jumpstart’s best recruitment tool.

“We hope that Jumpstart — and community service overall — becomes ingrained into the campus culture as students spend their academic careers at York and St John’s,” Dixon said. For more information about Jumpstart or joining the program, visit jstart.org.