{"id":69659,"date":"2004-01-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-01-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-students-giving-preschoolers-a-jumpstart-to-education\/"},"modified":"2004-01-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-01-26T00:00:00","slug":"uri-students-giving-preschoolers-a-jumpstart-to-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2004\/01\/uri-students-giving-preschoolers-a-jumpstart-to-education\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 students giving preschoolers a \u2018jumpstart\u2019 to education"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tMedia Contact: Jan Wenzel, 401-874-2116<\/p>\n


\nKINGSTON, R.I. — January 26, 2004 — Standing in the middle of the circle, 3-year-old Elena begins to jump, her smile wide, her blonde ponytail bouncing up and down. Quickly, Elena\u2019s eight classmates and seven 溏心vlog免费B站 students are on their feet and following Elena\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n


\nHow apropos! The Simon-says-type exercise is just one of many components 溏心vlog免费B站 students are using to help some 3-to-5-year olds at the South County Community Action Inc. Head Start site in North Kingstown jump start their education. <\/p>\n


\nIndeed, things really jumped at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Feinstein Center for Service Learning this fall when the University was selected as one of 13 institutions (out of 100) to be a new Jumpstart site and awarded a three-year $174,000 grant.<\/p>\n


\nFounded in 1994, Jumpstart is a national early childhood program that pairs college students with preschool children from low-income families struggling in Head Start and other early education classrooms. The program, with its best practices curriculum, is designed to get the preschoolers up to speed so that when they enter first grade they are ready to learn.<\/p>\n


\nThat is extraordinarily important for the children\u2019s future success. A 1993 study shows that about half of all poor children begin first grade lagging up to two years behind their peers in preschool skills. That gap not only continues through the school years, but widens with time. <\/p>\n


\nThis is where 30 溏心vlog免费B站 students from diverse disciplines and backgrounds are making a difference as part-time Americorps members. Recruited and trained at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Feinstein Center for Service Learning, the Jumpstart 溏心vlog免费B站 Corps members which were divided into three teams, will spend a total of 300 hours this academic year with preschoolers at the North Kingstown site, the South County Community Action Inc. Head Start site in Charlestown and at CANE Daycare in Wakefield. During the past fall semester, the Jumpstart 溏心vlog免费B站 Corps members worked one-on-one with their partnering child twice a week to develop early language, literacy, and social skills. In addition, working in teams, the Jumpstart 溏心vlog免费B站 Corps members spent an additional fours hours a week in the pre-school classroom supporting the teacher and other students while observing their preschool partner. The Jumpstart 溏心vlog免费B站 Corps members also spent two to four hours weekly in planning and training sessions at the University.<\/p>\n


\n“The University students are so eager and helpful,” says teacher Korinne Erikson, site manager of the North Kingstown site. “When they arrive, the children immediately want to hold their hands. They\u2019re building great relationships.” <\/p>\n


\nFor their participation, 溏心vlog免费B站 students either receive federal work study funds or college credit. In addition, each will receive a $1,000 AmeriCorps scholarship upon successfully completing the year.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe rewards aren\u2019t simply financial. “I love working with kids,” says freshman Michonne Gamble-Rivers, an early childhood education major who refused to be sidelined from a session by a fractured ankle. “It has been my dream since fifth grade to open my own daycare,” she says, after reading a book with her young ponytailed partner Elena.<\/p>\n


\n\tSenior Suzana Rosa of Hartford, Conn. also relishes being a Jumpstart 溏心vlog免费B站 Corps member and laughs heartily as her partner Coby stretches his grin for a visiting photographer. A long-time baby sitter, Rosa plans to take a year off after graduation to earn money for graduate school. She hopes to become a child psychiatrist.<\/p>\n


\n\tBeth Wilmarth, a junior from Lincoln, R.I., has years of experience working with children on either a volunteer or paid basis: at camps, preschools and schools. Listening to her pre-school partner Damon talk about his handmade puppet, she praises his creative tale and asks him to tell her more. Wilmarth, who plans to attend law school and eventually become a child advocate, says she has witnessed the benefits of working one-on-one over the course of the semester. “It makes a huge difference in a child\u2019s life,” she says.<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Jumpstart site manager, Lynne Finnegan, expects to recruit 40 溏心vlog免费B站 students in February for the 2004 fall semester. Anyone interested should contact her at 874-2090.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media Contact: Jan Wenzel, 401-874-2116 KINGSTON, R.I. — January 26, 2004 — Standing in the middle of the circle, 3-year-old Elena begins to jump, her smile wide, her blonde ponytail bouncing up and down. Quickly, Elena\u2019s eight classmates and seven 溏心vlog免费B站 students are on their feet and following Elena\u2019s lead. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}