The Spark

About a month ago, I knocked on Professor Anna Shusterman's half-open door during office hours. Anna was excited - she had had a brainstorm that was going to change the world.

Her idea was to attack Connecticut's embarrassingly wide achievement gap at the source, which, as we know all too well, is preschool. By targeting kids before they even reach kindergarten, we could drastically change outcomes for kids who have never had an experience in preschool. Anna was envisioning a high-quality, low-cost, research-based summer program which would target at-risk rising kindergarten students and be taught by college students (cheap to hire and brimming with enthusiasm!).

I had almost committed to a summer job back home, but I denied the offer at the last minute and decided to stay in Middletown to take this program as far as I possibly could.

A couple of weeks later, as I was in talks with my co-workers in the Family Resource Center trying to fit the idea into their summer plans, Anna met with Izzi Greenberg, director of the North End Action Team, and Jon Romeo, the game-changing principal at Macdonough. Anna threw out her idea and Izzi and Jon were on board almost immediately. Over the next weeks, with their support, it came to fruition: Macdonough School, this summer, will host the first-ever Kindergarten Kickstart Program from July 2-August 2.

After finals end (sometimes I forget that I'm actually a college student, but yeah, I have finals - Anna's Developmental Psychology exam included), Anna and I will be designing the program from the ground up based on research that supports dramatic play, focus games, and intentional conversation. The program will run 9 am-3 pm Monday-Thursday for five weeks, and will enroll 15 students (as of last Monday's kindergarten sign-up, we have 11 signed up already!). With supervision from Jon and Anna, the program will be run by myself, my fellow Wesleyan students Taylor Deloach and Julia Vermuelen, and Macdonough teacher Felicia Johnson. Our days will include centers, outdoor play, garden work, field trips, art projects, music and movement activities, cooking, science, math, and lots of games.

So, at this point, we're all just over-the-moon excited. I am so thrilled to have been able to assemble the support that I need to put this plan into motion - many many thanks to Anna Shusterman, Jon Romeo, Izzi Greenberg, Cathy Lechowicz, Cat Greaves, Nikki Belton, and Heather Haouchine. I'll continue to post as details are finalized and we approach opening day of Kindergarten Kickstart!

Sydney