MIDDLETOWN — In a ranch house at South Briel Boulevard and Freedom Court, kids are learning about everything from archaeology to IBM.

        The knowledge flows through Jump Start, an after-school tutoring program for children living in the Freedom Court housing project, operated by Butler County Metropolitan Housing.

        Primarily, the program is giving kids a chance to learn about computers and the Internet.

Amber Jackson, 11 (left), and April Adams, 12, check out a computer in the Jump Start program. Volunteer Mark de Saint-Rat (back) is a math professor at Miami University Middletown. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        “The students are eager and ready to learn,” said Mark de Saint- Rat, a Jump Start volunteer and math professor at Miami University Middletown. “We're doing quite well.”

        Recently, the group received a $6,000 grant and another for $500 from the Middletown Community Foundation to buy computers, software and Internet access.

        Using Jump Start two days a week, elementary, middle and high school students can come in after school to receive tutoring in math, reading and computer skills, said Jan Toennisson, spokeswoman for Miami Middletown.

        “Students may also bring in homework assignments to work on in the program's computer lab,” she said.

        Jump Start was started in 1993 by a Miami Middletown student who lived in Freedom Court. Several faculty members and three students from the university now volunteer with the group to help Freedom Court kids.

        “We can have as many as 20-25 (Freedom Court) students in a session,” said Mr. de Saint-Rat. “The office is intensively used.”

        The new computers are helpful in many ways, he said.

        “The grants will make a real difference,” he said. “The students need computer skills to work in today's world.”
       

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