Kris Ruiz, from the Bronx, NY joins JUMP this week!
Kris was a student participant in the NY-based Global Potential youth leadership program, which JUMP! supports through our development fund. Kris went on to volunteer with Global Potential for 4 years before joining the JUMP! team as our first former Global Potential participant. We are so excited to have him!
Kris on an exchange trip with Global Potential
It has been a great introductory week for me. My first time in China, and I was a bit intimidated mainly because of my lack of knowing the Chinese language. But on the contrary, my experience has been nothing less than fascinating thus far! The day after I landed in Beijing I did a dry run for a JUMP! adventure race. We went all around Houhai Lake and the Hutongs. So basically I experienced Beijing in a different way on my first day! How exciting is that?! But this not only made me appreciate Beijing, but it also helped me appreciate the passion and process that goes into a program like this.
I come from New York City, and there I worked for a non-profit organization called Global Potential that actually runs the Haiti Rise Conference the JUMP! organization funds. So I knew a decent amount of the program before I arrived, but talking about it and experiencing it is completely different. I came in their busy season, I like it because I’m learning things with physical examples, I feel it’s a good way to really understand all aspects of the program and it’s also a great way to learn.
The second day here we ran the JUMP! adventure race we prepped for the day before. It was amazing, the students loved it and it was amazing to see what we planned take form, and work. One thing I appreciate about the JUMP! Foundation is the amount of time that is put into every program, beforehand you have the prep, the run through, the program happens, then there is a debrief on how to make it better than it was.
JUMP! culture is about Pluses and Deltas. This is another thing that I really like about working here, everyone strives to become better. JUMP! is JUMP! even to its core, it’s something you can’t find everywhere. There is always room to do it better!
Tomorrow I fly out to Shanghai to support and shadow a program that is going to run in SAS Pudong. I honestly can’t wait! And I’m looking forward to running programs soon!
Kris Ruiz
JUMP! Program Manager-in-training