Northeastern students, along with their peers at Wheelock College and Suffolk University, are helping Boston preschoolers get a jump on literacy through the Jumpstart School Readiness for All Initiative. The program, which trains college students to mentor preschoolers in the Roxbury neighborhood, was recognized this spring with a Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award Partnership Award, created specifically to honor campus-community collaborations.

Meghan Schumacher, Northeastern's senior site manager for the Roxbury program, said more than 70 Northeastern students currently work with preschoolers on literacy. Jumpstart's goal, she said, is that "every child in America enters kindergarten ready to succeed." The learning goes both ways in this exchange. As Northeastern's president, Joseph Aoun, said, "Our graduates will be successful not only because of what they have learned at Northeastern, but also because of what they have learned here in Roxbury and Mission Hill."