At Jumpstart, our goal is to build literacy, language, social, and initiative skills in young children. We do this by pairing motivated college students, called Corps members, with preschool children in one-to-one relationships for an entire school year. Our model is designed to achieve three primary goals:
- School Success: The one-to-one relationships at the core of the Jumpstart model build literacy in combination with social and emotional readiness. Time and again, we've seen how consistent, committed, and caring relationships prepare children for school and help to create a lifelong love of learning.
- Family Involvement: Jumpstart's focuses on three areas of family involvement: building strong relationships, ongoing and consistent communication, and the Jumpstart-home learning connection. Jumpstart provides learning activities for the home, thereby reinforcing the learning that takes place during Jumpstart sessions.
- Future Teachers: By working with college students, we are also helping to create new generations that are not only excited about early childhood education, but also have developed the skills to make a difference. In partnership with Pearson, we've also started the Pearson Teacher Fellowship, which supports select college graduates teaching in low-income early education centers for two years.
