Annie Berman with her student partner, Keshmael
Annie Brennan, a sophomore, is not your usual Tufts student. By the end of the current academic year, she will have volunteered over 600 hours of her time working with local, low-income pre-schoolers. In doing so Annie has changed their lives, and her own.
Brennan is a Jumpstart Corps member. She, along with the 52 other Tufts students, spends her afternoons working one-to-one with preschool children who have been identified as being low-skilled in the areas of language, literacy and social skills.
"My parents always taught me to look at everything I had been given to see how I could give back to my community. One of the most meaningful ways for me has always been working with children. I volunteered in low-income preschools, Latin American orphanages and the children's cancer ward among others," said Annie.
When she arrived at Tufts, Annie looked for a program in which she could continue her work with children and she found Jumpstart. Brennan describes the experience as, "a balance between being involved in the Tufts community and in the Somerville community while giving me the opportunity to work with children."
The relationships that Jumpstart Corps members form with their partner children are one of the biggest influences in the child's life, and also for the Corps members.
"My first partner child was Salvadoran and bilingual. She struggled with both languages and was for the most part very non-verbal. The teachers were worried that she wouldn't make it to kindergarten," recalled Brennan. "From the start much of our interaction was more silent. During our last session of the year I was explaining that after that we wouldn't be coming back upstairs for Jumpstart anymore and she looked at me and said, 'Yeah, because I'm going to kindergarten!' I hadn't heard if she had passed her test, and asker her teacher how she did. I learned she had improved and did very well on the test. I was so proud knowing that I had made a difference."
This year, her second at Jumpstart, Brennan has a new partner child, Keshmael, with whom she bonded immediately. As before, she meets with her new partner an average of four hours a week.
Brennan's Jumpstart Team leader, Jenn Reyes '08, said, "Annie's dedication has paid off. Recently we watched as her partner child ran to her and yelled her name upon her arrival. There's no doubt that she is making a difference in the life of this little boy."
Because of her work with Jumpstart, Brennan she decided to double major in child development and international relations, and intends to become a teacher after college.
During the last six years during which Jumpstart has been hosted by Tisch College, more than 250 Tufts students have participated in the program. These students have provided more than 75,000 hours of service and worked with more than 220 low-income pre-school children in Somerville.
Founded in 1993 at Yale University, Jumpstart has become one of the fastest growing non-profit organizations in the country. For the past four years, Jumpstart has been named one of the top nonprofit organizations in the country by Monitor Group and Fast Company (through the Social Capitalist Awards).
Originally published February 2008
