Jumpstart Hops to the Top

Campus mentoring program secures No. 1 position by keeping kids first

By SYLAS WRIGHT

Fresno State’s Jumpstart mentoring program is No. 1 in the nation for the second time in three years.

Jumpstart, a national non-profit organization that couples college students with preschoolers from low-income families for one-on-one tutoring, ranked its 57 different sites across the country based on program management and work quality.

“We really try to focus on the quality of the program,” said Amy Lukianov, the Fresno State program coordinator. “And I believe that our tutors are very well-trained.”

The 55 student tutors, called corps members, work with children ages 3 to 5 twice a week in two-hour sessions. Lukianov described the corps members as “teachers running the lesson plan they created together.”

Although much of the teaching is targeted at the entire group of preschoolers, each member focuses on the child he or she is paired with for the entire two-semester period. There are four primary areas of study: social, initiative, early literacy and writing.

Along with following the lesson plan, the corps members must apply disciplinary measures on the sometimes-raucous youngsters. Lukianov said Jumpstart uses a conflict-resolution discipline model, in which tutors are instructed not to tell the children what to do; instead, the children are encouraged to work through problems.

Second-year corps member Lindsey Gelenaw has dealt with behavior issues. She said it’s important to break the children apart if they are fighting then “get on their level,” find out the problem—without taking sides—and let them come up with a solution.

“Sometimes it’s kind of hard,” said Gelenaw, a senior liberal studies major. “At the beginning, [the children] hit each other more, or yell and cry all the time, but by the end the kids are kind of running the show. It’s amazing how you see them progress day by day.”

But children don’t always get along.

Near the end of last year, Gelenaw said she caught a little girl choking another girl with her nametag. But that’s the craziest thing she has ever witnessed in Jumpstart, she said.

Carlos Cadenas, a sophomore political science major and second-year Jumpstart corps member, said the most common behavior problems involve fighting and crying.

The craziest thing Cadenas has ever seen in Jumpstart is a child who cried for two hours straight. “Nothing drastic, but I was pretty astonished,” he said.

Cadenas said he enjoys the children and the program.

“It’s very rewarding,” he said. “Working with the kids you see a lot of progress and improvement. It feels good knowing that you’ve changed a kid’s life forever.”

Gelenaw said she liked seeing her partner-child’s face light up every time they met last year, and watching the 5-year-old girl’s rapid progress. “The little girl completely changed by the end of the year,” she said.

After completing 300 hours of community service over the course of two semesters, student mentors receive a $1,000 scholarship and get three units of course credit in the process.

“I urge anyone who likes working with kids to do it,” said Gelenaw. “It’s so rewarding. It was way more exciting than I thought it would be.”