Karen Massetti: Up Close and Personal

Her emerald green eyes were fixed on the simmering coffee that lay on the table before her. She brought her hands up from her lap to adjust the collar on her smooth, black formal coat. Underneath, she wore a white button down blouse with black suit pants. Her long straight brown hair cascaded around her oval face. She sat up straight with perfect posture. Her legs were crossed and her three inch black pumps rested motionless at the bottom of her size six feet. She was five-feet three and weighed about 130 pounds.


Karen Massetti had full rosy lips that would open to utter friendly words in a soft female voice. The aroma of her Dolce and Gabbana perfume was strong enough to fill the air around her, yet was pleasant to ones’ nostrils. She gave off a very professional vibe as she rested her hands neatly on her lap.


Her life could almost be compared to a hero on a mission. “I want to help save children from child abuse and neglect,” Karen says, “and I want to show them that somebody does care. My work is important to me and to the ones suffering.” Her goal in life is to help make a positive difference “one child at a time.”


Karen’s life has been a long winding road of twists and turns, with very few signposts to help guide her through life. She was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on March 18, 1979 to Victoria and James Massetti .She grew up in a two story colonial style home in the suburbs. Her parents had been born and raised in Albany, New York. James was a lawyer and Victoria was a Kindergarten teacher. The two decided to move to a different state before Karen was born in hopes of starting solid careers in a smaller city.


Karen is most fond of her childhood memories. “Every night my mom would tuck me in bed, kiss me goodnight and leave. Then my dad would come in shortly after to read me a book,” Karen recalls. “After reading, he would kiss me goodnight at the center of my forehead, turn my lamp off and leave. He did this every night, from the time I was about four until twelve....really, every night.”


Karen met Sarah Evans during the first week of 6th grade at J. Pershing Middle School. Sarah was two years older because she had failed the first and second grade of elementary school. “We were like peanut butter and jelly,” Karen recalls, “and I think it was because we had different lifestyles. She wanted my substantial lifestyle…and I, for some reason, wanted to live like her. She didn’t have a bedtime.”


One day, Sarah came to school with bruises up and down her arms. She was wearing a long sleeve sweater on a hot Spring day. “I bumped into her into her in the school hallway and she moved away like she was in pain. She made me promise to never tell anyone before confiding in me that her father abused her on a weekly basis and her mother didn’t care. I didn’t tell anyone because our friendship would be on the line if I did. She told me they were just bruises, nothing more.”


Tragedy struck the day after Karen’s 17th birthday. Sarah had been killed by her parents’ abuse and neglect. “Her father beat her with some sort of stick,” Karen said with tears glistening in her eyes, “and pushed her down the stairs after an argument and her mom left her lying there on the floor, bleeding. The police came to the house because neighbors had heard screaming and shouting. She died on the way to the hospital. Her head injuries were too severe.”


With college looming on the horizon, Karen knew what she wanted to do with her life. She felt very guilty for hiding Sarah’s abuse but she was angered over the idea of parents hurting their own children. She got accepted into several schools on scholarship, including Michigan State University. With the intention of moving forward with her life and leaving the guilt behind in Pennsylvania, Karen moved to Michigan. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work and moved to Canton, Michigan where her fiancé lived. She went to the University of Michigan for a year before she discovered Jumpstart.


Jumpstart is a nonprofit program designed to help at-risk children enter Kindergarten prepared to succeed. These preschool children have been neglected by their parents or they aren’t given much attention at home. At-risk children, selected by their teachers, work one-to-one with Jumpstart employees to enhance their literacy skills. Karen was drawn to working for this program because she remembered Sarah had failed her first two years in elementary school. She worked with the program for several years before she had the opportunity to be promoted to the position of manager. She had control over who got hired to work in the program as well the training they needed.


“I have honestly never met someone who works so hard and loves what they are doing so passionately,” says Kristina McDowell, a Jumpstart employee hired by Karen in 2005. “She’s been an inspiration to me. She is the reason I am still working for Jumpstart today.”


With so much accomplished in her life, Karen still harbors the guilt of Sarah’s death in her mind. With her work, she hopes to help save children from what could happen as a result of child abuse and neglect. “For every year that I have worked with Jumpstart, I’ve seen at least 90% of the preschoolers advance to the next grade at the head of their classes. They just needed someone to show them they cared. My work definitely makes a difference and I’ll never quit. If I do, that’s one less life saved from the problems caused by child abuse and neglect.”

Module III

Name of Show: Start Smart

Length: 6:00

Episode 1: The Headstart
Segment: A World of Difference
Minutes: 1:00

Intro Music Clip: Help! (The Beatles)
Minutes: 0:25

Good morning! This is the Start Smart show and I'm your host, Shahnaz Khan. As you may know, every child enters the world with potential. Without a caring parent or adult, there is no guarantee that the child will reach that promise. Many children and teens have a hard time focusing in class and suffer when it comes to literacy skills. Receiving help and attention from a caring adult would have helped eliminate these problems.

In today's show I will be discussing one of the solutions to this problem....a program called Jumpstart. For the past ten years, Jumpstart has been bringing at-risk preschool children and caring adults together through one-to-one relationships to help build literacy, social and emotional readiness for life and school. These children sometimes aren't given much attention at home, or live with a single parent. This non-profit organization is a member of the AmeriCorps network, which connects more than 70,000 Americans each year in service programs helping lessen problems in education, public safety, health and environment.

Jumpstart has 3,000 AmeriCorps members working over 60 sites across the nation. They are paid through the work-study program provided by their university or community college. These members serve between 300 and 675 hours over the course of one school year. Within those hours, they must complete 25 hours of volunteer service. In return for their commitment, AmeriCorps members receive an education award of $1,000 that can be used to pay for some of their tuition expenses at school or pay off a student loan. They also have a great job experience to put on their resume as well as the chance to influence a young child’s life positively.

Segment Music Clip: Standing in the Middle (Linkin Park)

Minutes: 0:25

Segment: Positive Impact Minutes: 2:25

(music fades)

(second female voice speaks)

“She was having nightmares…trouble sleeping…and she would come to school every day, tired and upset. She'd tell me how the dreams were about being chased by monsters and her father wasn't there to save her. I didn’t know how to help her. She didn’t have anybody at home. She lived alone with her single mom with no other siblings. Her lack of social skills didn’t help her in having friends.”

(second female voice stops speaking)

That was Kara Jennings, an AmeriCorps member from the 2007 school year. Just like other members, she had to undergo 60 hours of intensive training during the months of September and October in the areas of Child Psychology. This helped her prepare to help the preschool child she was partnered up with.

Take for example the city of Dearborn, located in the state of Michigan. The University of Michigan, Dearborn and Henry Ford Community Colllege work with Jumpstart to provide the work-study funds for the AmeriCorps members. The site manager of Jumpstart, Karen Phillips, recruits members at the beginning of each year and helps them train for the job. Then the members are split up into teams, to work at four different preschools in the area. In an earlier interview with Karen, she had this to say:

(third female voice speaks)

“At the end of the year, Kara's five year old partner child knew how to write her name and was very social! The other preschool children would gravitate towards her as if she had a glow around her. I don’t know where she would have been if Kara had not been there to show her that someone cared.”

Segment Music Clip: My Reason (Spiritfall)

Minutes: 0:25

Segment: Future of Jumpstart

Minutes: 2:25

Did you know that about 40% of American kindergarten children arrive at school unprepared to learn? Five year old children from low-income communities only have one-fourth of their vocabulary and literacy skills developed by their second year of schooling. Classrooms are filled with other children, so there’s not really that much time and attention a teacher can provide the struggling child.

Enter Jumpstart. This program isn’t going anywhere but forward. Public funding is provided by grants from the federal government as well as generous donations from Starbucks, American Eagle and Pearson Education. The money goes towards funding for puzzles, art supplies, books and more. The preschool’s responsibility is to provide an empty classroom where the AmeriCorps team will hold sessions two days a week with their partner child. The children are tested by their preschool at the end of the year to see if they improved at all.

With a majority of the program being successful by the end of the academic year, this program is here to stay for many years to come. Not only are five year old children gaining life-shaping knowledge and experiences, but the work-study college students get to have the satisfaction of having helped shape that child’s future.

Thanks for listening to the Start Smart show. This is your host, Shahnaz Khan. Until next time, take care!

Ending Music: Don't Let Me Down (The Beatles) Minutes: 0:25

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Pictures for Podcast are in a separate post.

They are under the title Jumpstart: Connect Early.

Jumpstart: Connect Early