Fordham University is dedicated to social justice and being
men and women for others. Fordham encourages all of its students to Volunteer
at some point in their Fordham career. This year I joined one of Fordham’s most
active community service groups called Jumpstart. Jumpstart is an organization
that visits local preschools on weekly basis in order to encourage language and
literacy skills in children ages 3-4. Joining jumpstart is one of the best
decisions I have made here at Fordham.
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| This is me and my jumpstart team.
On Tuesdays and Friday my jumpstart team and I visit La
Peninsula, a local preschool. Before we
head to the school, we have a team planning meeting to discuss what book we
will read, and what activities we will do with the children. When we arrive at
the school we separate into groups. Our first group activity is going over the
letters and sounds of letters in the children’s names. After that, we read our
book of the week. Reading the book is my favorite part because the children
respond really well to them. They laugh and really enjoy the pictures. After
books are read we come together again during circle time, where we sing songs
and say poems that help develop alphabet knowledge and phonemic awareness.
After circle time, the children are given an option of whether they want to go
to an art, reading, writing, puzzle, or dramatic play area. All of the activities
set up for the children were especially designed to support the vocabulary and
content we read in the book. The last thing we do during session is sharing and
goodbye. During sharing and goodbye, children are given the opportunity to
share what they did during center time with the rest of the class. Of course
sharing and goodbye is accompanied by the famous goodbye Jumpstart song.
While jumpstart may be a very large commitment, it is
extremely rewarding. I love working with children and jumpstart has given me
the ability to do just that. I am so happy to know that I am helping children
learn to read. But it’s definitely a two way street, I would say I get just as
much out of jumpstart sessions as they do. Watching the kids grasp a concept,
or spell their name for the first time is really awesome. In addition, as if
the kids weren’t enough jumpstart has fostered so many friendships for me. My
team is a group of truly extraordinary people and I wouldn’t have them any
other way.
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