Understanding rubrics and graphic organizers may seem heady topics for third graders but Jacob Love, 10, and his classmates were clamoring at the prospect.

“Onions,” they called out after volunteer tutor Carol Hay drew a hamburger on whiteboard and asked: “OK class, we’ve got the burger and the bun, what’s missing?”

“Cheese.” “Lettuce.”

“That’s right, we need the juicy details. You’ve got the topic sentence, the title, now you need juicy details.”

The hamburger exercise is just one method to help students remember how to organize their thoughts for writing assignments, says Hay. She began volunteering three years ago after attending a fundraiser for LEAP, or Learning Enrichment Achievement Partners, an after-school homework program at St. Paul’s Church in Tustin.

“I became intrigued by the idea you could help children who otherwise won’t get the attention,” Hay recalled. “You know, the quiet one in the back of the classroom who is afraid to ask a question. Teachers sometimes don’t have extra time to give for extra help.”

LEAP, now in its fifth year at St. Paul’s, links church and community volunteers with nearby Benson Elementary School teachers, students and their parents. St. Paul’s provides volunteer tutors, classroom space, materials and healthy snacks. Teachers refer students who are performing below grade level and regularly consult with LEAP tutors and parents.

The goal, says program director Sally Parkin, is to aid at-risk students in the second through fifth grades.

 “What’s unique about LEAP is our relationship with the school and the teachers,” says Parkin. “We work closely with teachers on the student’s school work or special projects, or on anything else the teachers identify as a need.”

During the school year about 35 volunteers provide more than 40 students with homework help in math, reading and writing, as well as individual attention, enrichment activities and other support. This year, a three-week July summer session assisted about 28 students.

 “It’s been so wonderful, we want to expand into middle school,” says Parkin, a lifelong Episcopalian and a long-time St. Paul’s parishioner, who has served as program director since 2000. Her days are filled with a host of teaching, support and other administrative tasks.

This particular day, she alternates between the center’s three classrooms. Walls are papered with colorful posters and student drawings, tables display a host of books and student art made from popsicle sticks. She pauses briefly to offer hugs, encouragement, and classroom instruction before moving to the kitchen to help arrange graham crackers and other snacks with her 21-year-old son Ryan, a Vanderbilt University junior and a summer LEAP volunteer.

She also takes time to write a few thank-you notes to donors and to coordinate letters for a ‘Sponsor-A-Child’ fundraising project to offset the $30,000 annual program costs.

“Our cost is $420 per year per student,” Parkin explains. “We’re asking parishioners and community members to sponsor a child for $35 a month.”

Beside Parkin, there is one other paid staff person, a program aide. Everyone else is a volunteer. The program is funded through donations and is free to students.

“This is more than an extra tutoring program,” Parkin says. “It’s more than a band-aid approach. The school considers LEAP its number-one intervention program.”

Benson Elementary School Principal Maggie Villegas gives the LEAP program, tutors and Parkin resounding A-plusses.

“LEAP is an extraordinary program,” Villegas told attendees at a June 2 LEAP recognition event. “I have yet to find an after-school homework club anywhere that compares to the LEAP program,” Villegas said. “When I share the components of the program with my colleagues, I am instantly the envy of every principal in the room.

“This year, Benson was named a California Distinguished School by the California Department of Education for its exemplary learning programs and support services provided to students. The LEAP program is to be commended for being THE most significant resource we provide our students who need additional support.

“Thank you for the enduring impression you’ve made on the lives of Benson students you have touched,” Villegas said. “Every community needs people like you. Your contributions are immeasurable.”

In a 2002-2003 survey, participating teachers reported that 90 percent of LEAP students improved in such areas as accuracy and completion of homework. Eighty percent of the students showed academic improvement while 86 percent of students showed improved attitudes toward school and demonstrated gains in self-confidence.

Parents also graded LEAP in the same survey: 92 percent of parents responded that their children improved academically; 90 percent reported that their children displayed improved attitudes toward school in general along with an overall boost in self-confidence. One hundred percent of parents surveyed were satisfied with the program and reported a positive relationship between their children and volunteer tutors.

The same year, state standardized test scores revealed that 59 percent of the LEAP students improved significantly in math scores and 51 percent demonstrated significant improvements in Language Arts scores.

Benson principal Villegas calls Parkin “the heart and soul” of LEAP. “Her commitment and passion to serving children is simply an inspiration to all who know her,” Villegas said.

 “We really take the kids and their problems to heart,” Parkin explains. Her role as program director is an aspect of her ongoing faith journey, although the program is strictly academic, not religious.

“We’re extremely positive here,” she says. “There is no place for negativity. We are here out of love and the kids feel it. The parents feel it. They know this is a safe place.

“We’re trying to help students learn to think,” Parkin adds. “What we take as a measure of success comes in a change of attitude and self-image.”

Parkin, a former church school coordinator, says that initially she balked at the prospect of serving as LEAP director. But her desire to help the children inspired her own transformation. “I went back to school and completed a teacher credential program, and I love it! It’s my mission in life,” exclaims Parkin, who adds that her husband, George, and three children have all served as LEAP volunteers.

Volunteer Bob Ripley, 80, also knows from attitudes and self-image changes.

“I had a difficult time in school,” recalls Ripley, a retired sales engineer who tutors Benson students four days a week. “I’d sit in the room but I couldn’t see half the stuff that was going on.” His own painful memories of failing the third grade urged him to become a LEAP tutor. He dropped out of high school, but later returned and went on to graduate from college with a marketing degree.

“I respect the value of an education,” Ripley says. “It’s enjoyable to see the progress the students make. We hear about it and that’s wonderful. I concentrate on them with math and fractions. They don’t always get the attention otherwise.”

Problems with math and reading are now a thing of the past for Jacob Love, thanks to LEAP.

“When he came to us he wasn’t reading,” says Parkin. “We worked with him from very basic phonics all year, giving him one-on-one help and he’s done extremely well. He’s got a great attitude.”

Now, Jacob eagerly anticipates the daily walk over from Benson to St. Paul’s with his 9-year-old sister JoVon, who is also a LEAP student.

“I have better grades in school in reading and math, since I’ve been coming to LEAP,” he says happily.

“I learned my time tables at the beginning of the year. I like writing, too. The hamburger we use helps us,” he said.

“It explains how to put all the details in and your opening and closing sentence. At first, I didn’t really get it, but once I was back in LEAP in the third grade, I got the hang of it.”