Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Finding Jayden

By Crystal Maldonado

Jayden was shy. It was September and he was just beginning preschool at the Vernon YMCA. He felt insecure, he had trouble talking to his four-year-old peers, and he rarely participated in class or played tag with others.
Katie Zurowick wanted to teach and work with children. Full of energy and enthusiastic, as a senior at the University of Connecticut majoring in education, Zurowick was looking for a program that would provide her with experience and help her work closely with kids. She applied to UConn’s new program, Jumpstart, which paired college students with preschoolers.
And that’s how she met Jayden.
UConn’s partnership with the national children’s early literacy program, Jumpstart, began in 2007. The program aims to increase reading and comprehension in young children by intervening during the early education years.
According to Meg Marshall, Jumpstart site manager for UConn, Meg Marshall, a local student, Colleen Deasy, first recommended the program. Deasy approached Matt Farley, associate director of community outreach, about starting a local chapter. Her idea was well received by faculty members and the program began.
“The whole thing is based on the vision of a student,” said Marshall.
Jumpstart matches children with college students in a classroom setting. The volunteers are called corps members, and they commit their full academic year to the kids, working 10 to 12 hours split into two sessions per week. Corps members dedicate four hours a week to their partnered children, two hours a week to their fellow volunteers in a group session, and then several hours of classroom assistance. Occasionally, they even work on weekends.
Nicole Abbott, a senior majoring in psychology who has participated with Jumpstart said, “The program helps in so many ways other than just reading to kids. We have an important responsibility to these children.”
At UConn, for the 2008 to 2009 year, there were 42 corps members serving 44 children one-on-one. Because the corps members also do classroom work, Marshall estimates that their efforts extend to approximately 100 children. Though only in its second year, the program has been successful, according to Marshall.
“Data shows that students make better gains when part of the program,” said Marshall. “The program is based in low-income preschools and we must face realities of achievement gap. One-on-one attention really makes a difference.”
Because of this, Marshall hopes that Jumpstart will eventually expand throughout Connecticut.
“There’s a tremendous need in inner-city and rural areas,” she explained.
Currently, UConn is the only college in Connecticut involved with Jumpstart. UConn students are matched with preschool children in four surrounding areas: Hockanum Valley Child Development Center, Vernon Head Start, Mansfield Discovery Depot, and Vernon YMCA.
It was at Vernon where Zurowick and Jayden, whose mother did not want his last name used in the story, eventually met.
Zurowick’s Jumpstart team would arrive each day at around 1 p.m., just after the children’s naps. The kids who were involved with Jumpstart were separated into a different room, where they would have what was referred to as a welcoming circle: everyone would sit and discuss how things were going. A group reading activity followed, and then the children were free to choose any activity they wanted.
After that, they would move into one-on-one groups. The mentors would sit with the children and read for 20 to 30 minutes. Throughout the week, they would also meet with the preschoolers for one-hour mentoring sessions.
“We were also in charge of creating activities and lessons the children could learn from. Helping to spark their interests in reading was very important and a main goal,” explained Zurowick. “But sometimes we would just need to be there to show that we care and that we would listen if they wanted to talk.”
Abbott agreed. “The kids depend on us. We’re their friends.”
Both volunteers felt that the hours spent one-on-one with their kids were most important. Zurowick said that it was in those times that she saw the most growth in Jayden.
“He was very shy and insecure at the start of the year,” she said. “Yet by the end, he was running around playing with all the other children. It was incredible to be a part of.”
Jayden immensely benefited from the program. Not only was Jayden prepared for kindergarten, but he flourished into a talkative, energetic little boy.
But it may have been Zurowick who benefited more. She is still in contact with Jayden and his mom, and she took away memories that she will carry with her.
“The day Jayden graduated, he ran up to me and told me I was his best friend in the whole world and he wished I could be his sister,” she said. “That meant everything to me.”

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