Hi everyone! My name is Isabel Schoeman (she/her), and I’m a rising sophomore in Butler College pursuing a concentration in Public and International Affairs, hopefully in addition to certificates in Environmental Studies and American Studies. On campus, I’m an EcoRep through the Office of Sustainability and a member of the Civic Leadership Council through the Pace Center. I also enjoyed mentoring young students through Academic Success Today (another Pace program) last semester and hope to continue that work this year. When I’m not doing schoolwork or one of these activities, I enjoy doing puzzles of both the jigsaw and crossword variety, reading, and spending time with friends and family.
This summer, I spent 8 weeks as a PICS intern at Jumpstart for Young Children, Inc., an education nonprofit which is more commonly referred to as just Jumpstart. For many years now, I’ve been passionate about reforming our education system to make a strong education accessible available to every student in this country. When I read Jumpstart’s mission statement, I realized their efforts directly work towards the more equitable and balanced society that I envisioned; Jumpstart aims to address numerous societal issues centering around the opportunity gap that often directly correlates to educational experience by focusing on early childhood education and literacy in underserved communities, closing the gap as early as possible. I was thrilled when I was offered a position in their Program Operations and Strategy department, working alongside my mentor Samantha to help college students implement the Jumpstart curriculum in preschool classrooms.
I was able to work on a number of projects during my weeks at Jumpstart, getting a taste of a variety of jobs within the organization. I started off my work by researching the best practices for organizing and presenting at a virtual conference, as Jumpstart was hosting their first virtual event at the end of my 8 weeks (a training institute for Site Managers, the people who were stationed at colleges and universities affiliated with the organization that were sending students into preschool classrooms). This research was compiled into two guides for presenters and organizers to consult as they prepared for the event. Another project I took on related to Site Manager training was helping one of my coworkers redesign the Site Manager onboarding process. I also did a number of different projects to help with compliance reporting and tracking— this was a component of nonprofit work that I hadn’t been exposed to before, but I was essentially assisting my coworker in making sure that Jumpstart was following and prepared to follow guidelines set by AmeriCorps and other major funders in order to continue receiving funding in the future. Perhaps the biggest task I took on during my internship was reviewing the applications that colleges and universities submitted annually in order to continue being Jumpstart sites. I went through each of these applications to determine areas where sites may need additional support and which sites may be able to serve as a model for that support, and this work culminated in a presentation I gave to the Program Directors who manage all of Jumpstart’s sites. I additionally reviewed these applications to compile a report for Jumpstart’s marketing team on which sites hosted additional Jumpstart events and what the descriptions of those events were. Since my work was remote, Samantha also made sure I had the opportunity to meet Jumpstart employees who I didn’t have the chance to work with directly by coordinating a number of Intern Meet and Greets. Through these meetings, I had the chance to meet numerous amazing individuals, including the Jumpstart CEO and COO, as well as the two other Jumpstart summer interns. By the end of my 8 weeks as a Jumpstart intern, I truly felt like I had been introduced to all nooks and crannies of the organization’s work.
My goals were this summer were very straightforward. The first was focused more on my own self growth, as I have wondered for a while now whether I should pursue a career in the nonprofit world and thus was interested to simply learn more about how I fit into that kind of work environment. As I discussed earlier, my internship coordinator at Jumpstart made sure that I was well informed about the inner workings of Jumpstart as an organization and that I had the opportunity to meet people in all departments to discuss their jobs and experiences; thus, achieving this goal came quite naturally throughout my 8 weeks. The second and more important goal in my eyes was to do whatever I could to help the Jumpstart employees do the amazing and impactful work to which they had dedicated their careers. I wanted to give my all to any task I was given, whether it was completing data reports or engaging in deeper analysis. I hope that my time at Jumpstart will have a long lasting impact on at least one child’s future, even if it was indirect or through a chain effect completed by my amazing coworkers. I feel honored to have been able to work with such an incredible organization, and I cannot wait to hear about everyone else’s summer experiences when we come together in the fall!
