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

----------------------------------------------------------

Pictures for Podcast are in a separate post.

They are under the title Jumpstart: Connect Early.