In her time serving as a teaching assistant in the University of Chicago’s Neighborhood Schools Program (NSP), Jayleesha Cooper has loved being able to share in milestone teaching moments with the preschool students she’s worked with. “Preschool is such a vital time. You get to make a really big impact on them—whether that’s teaching them how to write their name for the first time, or help with the foundations of reading, or how to interact with their friends and regulate their emotions,” Cooper, a Nebraska native who graduated from UChicago in June, says. The three- and four-year-olds Cooper has gotten to know over her four years supporting Emmett Till elementary school have taught her a lot, too. “Preschoolers just teach you that life always moves on and there’s always something to be happy and joyful about,” Cooper says. “And just seeing how excited they are to learn.”
Cooper is one of 10 UChicago students to work with Till through NSP this school year but the close partnership between the Woodlawn school and UChicago spans several years and capacities. In addition to NSP’s core work that places hundreds of UChicago students like Cooper in local schools as tutors and classroom assistants each year, NSP program leaders have collaborated with Till administrators and teachers on efforts like a just-launched second-grade literacy pilot, specialized support for Spanish-speaking newcomer families, and workshops for other NSP partners led by Till Principal Raven Talley.
Maria Villamizar Londono, an NSP partner, and Principal Raven Talley catch up in between classes at Till
“The NSP partners are right alongside the Till students and staff through a large portion of the school year and can actively engage in providing instructional support for classwork, projects, and activities,” Talley said. “It’s been pivotal.”
Brandi Snodgrass, UChicago’s director of Neighborhood Schools Partnerships, has seen Till’s openness to partnering on new NSP projects and initiatives create and build on benefits for the elementary school and university students alike.
“Principal Talley and the staff at Till have truly embraced our NSP students as extended family, and it’s been such a pleasure working closely with them to ensure their students and ours are having a mutually beneficial experience,” Snodgrass said. “It has been a joy partnering with Principal Talley to think creatively together about how both our students can engage at a deeper level as we continue to build an even stronger partnership going forward.”
Meeting Unexpected Needs
When UChicago graduate student Maria Villamizar Londono started working with NSP, she was eager to support Till classrooms wherever she was needed. After an influx of Spanish-speaking migrant families settled in Woodlawn in recent years, Villamizar Londono—who came to study public policy in Chicago three years ago from her native Colombia—was tasked with helping to translate lessons for Till’s Spanish-speaking first through eighth graders.
“I didn’t know I was going to be working with Spanish-speaking students but it’s made it especially fulfilling,” Villamizar Londono said.
Villamizar Londono’s time with Till students and volunteering in the community as an adult ESL teacher and a trauma-sensitive yoga instructor showed her the students needed even more resources. “These schools received a large number of Spanish-speaking students very suddenly and have been doing the best that they can, but these kids needed more structural support,” she said.
Villamizar Londono proposed starting an English Club at Till where students meet twice monthly over lunch to get more exposure to the language, play games, and build community. A pilot session took place in March of this year, and it was a hit. Till officials are excited Villamizar Londono has identified other NSP students who are interested in carrying it on next year following her June graduation.
Not only does the club and Villamizar Londono’s general support help Till students better their English, Villamizar Londono says she’s seen it as a way to boost their self-esteem as well during an emotionally taxing time for many.
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Cooper, too, has embraced the social emotional aspects of her NSP role, particularly when it comes to tapping her own life experiences to forge deeper connections with Till students. Several of the preschoolers Cooper works with, for instance, are diverse learners.
“For a lot of people it can be hard [to support those students], but I have two little brothers with Autism so I think that that translated over to the classroom in terms of the amount of patience I’m able to give and just helping them to find ways to engage in things that they enjoy,” Cooper said. “Working with diverse learners shows you that one path doesn’t necessarily fit every single child and you have to be able to adapt.”
She also sees herself in her NSP students. “A lot of the kids at Emmett Till came from similar backgrounds to what I was raised in so being able to show them ‘You can go to UChicago,’ ‘You can go to law school,’ being able to teach them those aspirations is a big part of what I’ve taken away from my time at Till,” Cooper, who’s starting law school at Southern Methodist University in the fall, said. “No matter how far you go, it’s always important to make sure you’re uplifting the future generations behind you.”