After Jumpstart for Young Children did not renew university grants, the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service (CSJ) will suspend the Georgetown Jumpstart program after this semester due to funding constraints, the CSJ announced in an email to program members March 28.
The program connects Georgetown University students with underserved preschool populations to provide language, literacy and socio-emotional programming. According to Jumpstart, the program’s national partner, AmeriCorps, will not renew grants for any of the 31 colleges and universities that operate Jumpstart programs, though the program’s funding remains secure through the spring semester.
The announcement comes following federal policies cutting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) funding, including an ongoing U.S. Supreme Court case evaluating the legality of President Donald Trump’s executive order to cancel DEI-related grants from the U.S. Department of Education.
In an email obtained by The Hoya to all Georgetown Jumpstart Corps members, CSJ Deputy Director Ray Shiu said the ending of grant renewals were influenced by changes in the organization’s financial system.
“From the communication that we received from the Jumpstart national office, this decision was based on its goal to re-envision and reorganize how they provide programming to pre-K youth and families, while fitting into and aligning within a new federal financial model,” Shiu wrote in the email.
While Jumpstart money only supplements CSJ funds, the program will be functionally unable to operate without the Jumpstart banner. The funding largely gives students who complete 300 hours of volunteer work the opportunity to receive an AmeriCorps scholarship, funding that partially repays student loans in recognition of work in public service.
As part of Jumpstart, members create materials to prepare preschool students for kindergarten, including literacy curricula, community-building activities for students and families and programming for social and emotional development.
A university spokesperson said the CSJ will explore alternative ways that Georgetown students can continue to work with the organization.
“We know that Jumpstart Hoyas have a deep connection to the program — its mission and focus — with many of them serving for multiple semesters, summers and years,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “It is challenging to transition from one beloved strategy to another and, at the same time, we encourage the students not yet graduating to reflect on how they might now most effectively and joyfully support CSJ’s mission and vision.”
Taylor Moses (CAS ’27), a Georgetown Jumpstart Corps member who joined during her first semester at Georgetown, said the program is by far her favorite despite the university’s preprofessional club culture.
“With club culture here at Georgetown, the value of a club is often dictated by how hard it is to get in or how good it looks on a resume,” Moses told The Hoya. “Despite the fact that, yes, everybody does get into Jumpstart if you apply, it’s the most fulfilling thing that I’ve done here at Georgetown. It’s something that I’m always talking about during interviews, something that I proudly put on my resume instead of my more professional clubs.”
“I genuinely think that I have become a better person because of Jumpstart. I was going to do it for all four years,” Moses added.
Catrina Kellaghan (SFS ’28), a Jumpstart Corps member, said that, after receiving notification of the funding cuts, group members discussed how they wanted to continue working with the same children next year.
“We were coming off the high of such a great session and such a pleasant morning with these kids, and then we were like, ‘Wow, I guess we’re not allowed to do that anymore,’” Kellaghan told The Hoya. “I can’t say I was shocked. Unfortunately this is the kind of thing we just see coming now.”
Isaac Mazariegos (SFS ’28), another Jumpstart Corps member and a community engagement coordinator for the program, said he had been planning the program’s Spring Fling, a reception and celebration for their students, parents and community partners, throughout the semester.
“This whole time I thought it was the beginning of something — maybe the last big event of the year, but something to build on for the next three,” Mazariegos told The Hoya. “Turns out it won’t just be the last big event of the year, but the last big event of Jumpstart altogether.”
Moses said she is deeply concerned about what the end of the program means — not just for Georgetown students, but for the program’s site manager, Cheyenne Baltimore, and the preschoolers they work with every week.
“I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, how am I going to get paid?’” Moses said. “The first thing I thought was, ‘How is Cheyenne gonna get paid?’ and ‘So I’m going to get to see these kids eight more times, and then never see them again? What’s going to happen to them?’”
“Jumpstart gives them some sort of stability that many of them might not have at home,” Moses added. “The fact that now we can’t even do that, and that’s going to be another thing that may have abruptly just gone up and left their life, is so upsetting.”
Kellaghan said she doesn’t understand why the program would be an issue, even in the context of federal funding cuts.
“What on earth could be problematic about reading to kids and doing art projects?” Kellaghan said.