Jumpstart/Volunteers

What is Jumpstart?

"Working toward the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed." This is the mission statement of Jumpstart, a national non-profit organization that focuses on helping preschool children with school readiness. Jumpstart was founded in 1993 at Yale University at the intersections of two national trends: the public need for quality early childhood programs and the emerging national service movement recruiting thousands of college students to community service. During the first year of the program, 15 college students worked one-on-one with 15 preschoolers at New Haven Head Start. Today, over 70 Jumpstart sites exist at colleges and universitites around the United States. Through these sites, more than 1,000 college students have been paired with 13,000 preschool children through the Jumpstart Program.

Jumpstart programs provide college students with the opportunity to develop close, one-on-one relationships with a preschooler to help foster his or her language, literacy, social-emotional, and initiative skills. In turn, a major goal of the Jumpstart Program is promoting a positive attitude towards learning, which helps lead to future school success. For more information, please go to http://www.jstart.org.

Does UW-Madison have a Jumpstart Program?

Yes! In Fall 2006 Jumpstart was brought to our campus by Professor Julie Poehlmann from the Human Development and Family Studies Department in the School of Human Ecology. The Jumpstart Program has two aspects: 1) The Corps Membership, which involves working on a team of 8-10 students who go to Madison-area early care and education programs to work with young children recommended for the Jumpstart Program. Corps Members develop relationships with the children at the preschools, which last for the whole academic year. Students who paricipate in this aspect of the program commit 10-12 hours a week to the Jumpstart Program. Activities include two visits per week to an assigned preschool where Jumpstart teams implement a two-hour "Jumpstart session." These sessions are built around adult-child interactions that emphasize early language, literacy and social skill development. In addition, Jumpstart Corps Members also provide weekly classroom support in their children's preschool classrooms. Students can receive either course credit or work study funds for being a Corps Member. 2) The Jumpstart Program also offers several volunteer engagement opportunities for students who cannot make such a large time commitment. These include preschool classroom support, as well as reading days in campus preschools and public libraries. The Volunteer Engagement aspect of the Jumpstart Program provides shorter-term assignments for students, but still gives them the opportunity to participate in Jumpstart's mission. For more information about the UW-Madison Jumpstart Program, please visit: http://www.sohe.wisc.edu/new/jumstart/.

How can UW-Madison students become involved?

If you are interested in becoming a Jumpstart Corps Member at UW-Madison, please contact Jumpstart's Site Manager, Dr. Robert San Juan by e-mail at jumpstart@mail.sohe.wisc.edu or by phone (608) 890-1414.

If you are interested in Jumpstart volunteer engagement opportunities, please contact Jumpstart Madison's Volunteer Coordinator at: jumpstartmadison@gmail.com.

Jumpstart Classroom Support Program

The staff at UW-Madison Jumpstart are working with 10 campus child care centers to provide a variety of volunteer classroom support activities with children ages 6 weeks-12 years of age. Click here for information about the different campus center opportunities.

We hope that this program will bring together students, faculty and staff and will strengthen the campus community while providing valuable support for children and their families!

Eagle's Wing Jumpstart volunteers with students.