SF State student Cindy Cervantes sees several organizations on campus that call for social change. However, she feels that many members of these groups don’t actually go out into society and change things.

Cervantes believes she is part of an organization that does.

Cervantes, a 22-year-old senior majoring in English, belongs to Jumpstart, an organization devoted to helping preschoolers learn to read. The group has programs on 44 campuses across the United States, including one right here at SF State.

The program offers work-study jobs to college students by putting them into preschool classrooms to help underprivileged children between three and five years old with their reading skills. Jumpstart places most of its members in the poorest neighborhoods in order to help the children who need the most help preparing for kindergarten.

“We’re actually doing something,” Cervantes said. “We’re going out there. And I think that’s what Jumpstart’s all about.”

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, also called The Forum, releases an annual report measuring what they have decided are “the most important indicators of well-being of the nation’s children.” According to the Forum’s 2003 report, “the education of children shapes their own personal development and life chances, as well as the economic and social progress of our nation.”

The forum also says reading to children who are between three and five years old helps them do well in school and increases their chances of getting to college.

Jumpstart, now just months shy of its 10th anniversary, defines itself as a, “non-profit organization that engages young people in service to work toward the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed.”

Cervantes is in the middle of her second year with Jumpstart and is now acting as a team leader for the program. She heard about Jumpstart in the fall of 2002 when she came to orientation at SF State and passed a booth for work study programs.

Joining Jumpstart is a one-year commitment that requires students to spend 10 hours every week going to one of the preschools, many of which are in low-income neighborhoods throughout San Francisco. After some initial training, each Jumpstart member is assigned to one child for the rest of the year.
Students in the program must also enroll in Child and Adolescent Development (CAD) 697 called Develop Literacy Skills. This class teaches Jumpstart members how to teach their preschooler.

According to Lygia Stebbing, site director of the SF State Jumpstart program who also teaches CAD 697, there are 76 SF State students in the program right now. Stebbing said most students learn about the program through word of mouth.

Stebbing said Jumpstart helps children at a critical age learn to read, which helps them in school and, later down the road, prevents many of them from committing crimes.

“Jumpstart is really making a difference in the children’s lives and in the community,” Stebbing said. “It makes such a big impact.”

The program seems to have a big impact on the college students involved too.
Rakita O’Neal, 20, has done volunteer work since she was 12. But she said it’s Jumpstart that has made her really look at society and the problems facing it that she hopes to combat. “Connecting with a child opens your eyes to what’s happening in society today,” O’Neal said.

O’Neal, a junior and Psychology major, has been part of Jumpstart for more than three years and is a team leader that looks over seven members and the seven children to which they are assigned. She said Jumpstart members make a big difference in a child’s life. She came to SF State with the plan of being a child psychologist. “Now I need to be a preschool teacher,” O’Neal said. “I have to teach.”

Most Jumpstart members are women, but the men who have joined the program often act as one of the only male role models for the children being raised by their single mothers.

Jason Quijano, a SF State senior, joined Jumpstart as an entering freshman. He feels he’s made a difference for the children he’s worked with not only because he helped them read. He’s seen many of the preschoolers, especially the boys, quickly latch on to the men in the program. Quijano is glad that he’s seen more men join Jumpstart over the past four years.

After a year in Jumpstart, Quijano decided to switch from a Business Administration major to Liberal Studies. He now plans on teaching in an elementary school. “I’m really in to teaching,” Quijano said. “I want to make a difference in someone’s life.”

Students who are still new to the program also said Jumpstart has affected them. “It’s a life-changing experience,” Tiffany Banks, 22, said.

Banks, a senior and sociology major, has a 40-minute commute by train and bus to her preschooler, but she doesn’t complain. “It’s really not an obstacle because when you see the kids, you forget about it,” Banks said.

And as the session with her child ends, Banks feels even better. “You leave with a smile on your face, thinking, ‘I did something really good today,’” Banks said. “It makes me want to make a difference even more.”