march 2010 newsletter - Kappa Alpha Theta - Columbia University

What is Jumpstart?
Jumpstart brings college students
and community volunteers together
with preschool children for year long,
individualized tutoring and mentoring.
Since 1993, more than 70,000
preschool children across America
have benefited from millions of hours
of Jumpstart service. This year alone,
Jumpstart volunteers are serving more
than one million hours with 13,000
preschool children in more than
60 communities across America.
from jstart.org
Clockwise from top left: Tala
Akhavan and Maria Sulirmirski with a
student from Jumpstart; Sarah El Tamer,
Alyss Vavrika and Erin Longinotti along
with Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers Frank
Yin and Jerry Bell led the children in arts
and crafts; John Croll from Sigma Phi
Epsilon poses with Michele Spitzer as she
shows off her Dr. Suess facepaint;
Josephine Ruiz-Healy, Tracy Rodrigues,
Jenna Lauter and Ali Hard get ready to
cut the birthday cake.
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Thetas Give Back
On March 6, our chapter partnered with Jumpstart for Young Children to celebrate National Reading Month and Dr. Seuss’ birthday with a
weekend party for more than 100 families from Bloomingdale Family Program, a Head Start school that provides pre-school care to Upper West
Side children in need. Along with the brothers of Columbia fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon, our sisters hosted a morning of reading, face painting,
cake eating and coloring. There was even a surprise appearance by Cat in the Hat himself, thanks to a generous SigEp volunteer in costume!
In addition to hosting the party, a Theta-SigEp penny drive raised over $300 to purchase Dr. Seuss books, which were given to families as
party favors. The event, the first of its kind for our chapter, was organized by Tracy Rodrigues (BC ’11), who is currently an intern at Jumpstart,
one of the nation’s leading education non-profits. "Many children received their own book, perhaps their first, thanks to our penny drive and their
families were so thankful for the gift. It meant a lot to the kids to have a few hours of undivided attention given to them by caring adults and
Jumpstart was so impressed by our efforts that they plan on doing a similar event again next year," Rodrigues said.