How one Madison House Alumna nurtured her passion to help students across the country

“Every child deserves the opportunity to discover the joy of learning and start school ready to succeed,” explains Stacy Quinn, UVA alumna ‘85 and founder of Joy of Learning Collaborative. Stacy has long been dedicated to reducing education gaps across student demographics. Throughout her career she has nurtured her passion for tutoring and turned it into a tangible and impactful product: BOP! magazine. This 80-page learning collection boasts extensive engaging and educational activities that make learning enjoyable. “It gives kids not just the skills, but the motivation,” adds Stacy.

STACY QUINN Found HER PASSION AT MADISON HOUSE

Stacy was introduced to tutoring in high school when she was asked to tutor a younger child. This part-time job quickly morphed into a passion when she arrived at UVA, where she continued tutoring through Madison House. At UVA, Stacy was involved in a few different activities—she rushed a sorority, worked in hospitality for a student-run concert group, and held a part-time job. “I looked at doing the Cavalier Daily and all sorts of other things,” elaborates Stacy. “When I went to Madison House and I decided to volunteer as a tutor, I fell in love with it. That was my favorite thing to do.”

After graduation, Stacy continued to seek out opportunities across the country that were similar to those she loved at Madison House in cities like Washington D.C., Ann Arbor, New York City, Cleveland, and Boston. She spent a lot of her time working with elementary students, though she was not working exclusively with that age group. For example, Stacy had an extremely impactful experience working with a college student while in Boston. “I tutored a woman who had just graduated from high school,” Stacy says. “Her dad was a janitor at Harvard and she was the first person in her family to go to college. She had gotten pregnant and had a young daughter. She lived with her parents, and I would go over and tutor her during her first year of college while her parents took care of the baby. She was so smart, so motivated, and such a cool girl.”

Until 2014, tutoring had been something Stacy did on the side while she focused on a career in business. Through her startup called Cinnabar Media Ventures, Stacy combined her business and innovation expertise with her passion for education. Stacy’s company created hybrid books, called VOX™ Books, with a small audio reader in them to help children with early literacy. Each book came equipped with an electronic device that would read the story aloud. This combined print plus audio format helped children hear the story while seeing the words on the page. Additionally, it provided the type of engagement children nowadays expect from toys and devices.

Narrators were tailored to the book at hand, making the experience even more exciting for young students. Mo Willems, author of the renowned Pigeon series, even narrated some books. Eventually, after selling her startup, Stacy contemplated what had been missing from her time developing VOX™ Books. She realized she was not able to address under-resourced communities as effectively as she wanted to.

JOY OF LEARNING COLLABORATIVE BEGINS

Knowing that the VOX™ Books were helpful in boosting early literacy but wanting to expand the reach of her product to all students, Stacy was spurred to start Joy of Learning. She wanted “to make sure the books were affordable and accessible so community literacy organizations, school districts, and libraries that didn’t have as much funding could help children in need of resources.” A QR code allowed her to link the necessary audio narrations and subsequently eliminate the need entirely for a hardcover book, instead producing lower-cost paperback versions.

Stacy focused her product on children before they start kindergarten, where the reading threshold is “learning to read” instead of “reading to learn”. Stacy realized that socioeconomic factors are one of the most significant predictors of student achievement and performance. Gaps that take root during the early years of a child’s school experience frequently persist throughout their academic career, even perpetuating a cycle of low educational achievement and lack of social mobility across generations. Stacy also knew from her early tutoring days that reading is only one piece of the puzzle that needs to be addressed. As a Madison House tutor, she had educated students in a wide variety of skills, not just reading. Math skills, pre-writing skills, conversation practice, vocabulary knowledge, and motivation to learn are also important. And thus, the Joy of Learning Collaborative was on its way with a goal of helping kids develop confidence and motivation.

BOP! MAGAZINE

Stacy believes that every child deserves the opportunity to discover the joy of learning and start school ready to succeed. “Joy of Learning neither replaces preschool nor does it take away from the role of the parent,” says Stacy. “We want parents to be working with their children and children to be learning at home, in addition to what they are learning at preschool.”

The “BOP!” collection of learning materials is engaging in its visuals and the activities themselves. They are built on studies that found that when parents treat early learning and reading as skills acquisition, using workbooks or flash cards, children actually end up doing worse in learning environments. In this scenario, the fun of learning gets suppressed. It makes learning a chore. By using an engaging magazine format, Stacy aims to make learning fun again.

So, what is inside? Each monthly edition includes reading, math, oral language, writing, and music activities. There are two full books in each issue—a picture book and a nonfiction book about animals. Joy of Learning licenses picture books from notable publishers like HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Candlewick Press. Each feature includes engaging questions in order to get kids accustomed to talking about books.

“There is a concept called ‘contingent talk,’ taking yourself outside of the immediate situation and putting yourself into a hypothetical situation,” says Stacy. “Getting kids to talk with their parents in that way is very good for their vocabulary, brain development, and early learning.”

Even people who don't think they like books will pick up a Sports Illustrated or People magazine or something, Stacy points out. “Bop! is very visual and very fun and perceived as ‘We’re having a good time here!’” she adds. “It is a kind of stealth education.”

A third benefit of this format, in addition to the lower cost and visual appeal, is the parental accessibility and feasibility. Stacy mentions that other organizations have attempted to aid parents in boosting their children’s education through parenting classes, but that these types of classes are time consuming. She also points out that it can be difficult to get time off work or find child care in order to participate.

The collaborative relies on a network of community partners, such as food pantries, housing resources, community arts organizations, libraries, and schools, who have existing relationships with families in need to make access to materials as easy and convenient as possible.  

LOOKING FORWARD

Joy of Learning recently celebrated its three-year anniversary and Stacy reflects back on how far the organization has come.

“We were actually founded June 30, 2021,” she says. The first prototype was produced in January 2022, followed by a three-month pilot that spring, and then a full school year of distribution last year. Now, Joy of Learning is publishing ongoing monthly editions. Still, Stacy aspires for more.

“We are so young. We are only reaching a small amount of the children in need. We’d like to help every child,” Stacy says emphatically. “There is plenty of room for us to grow geographically.”

Additionally, Stacy hopes to produce bilingual versions for families who do not speak English. “We want to create a combined flip book with both English and Spanish so students can make the connection, helping them with language learning along with the early learning.”

Stacy Quinn’s career has come full circle, landing her back in a passion she was able to nurture at Madison House. Now, through Joy of Learning, she helps hundreds of children across the nation boost not only their academic skills but also their curiosity and motivation to learn. She summarizes, “It started because I was tutoring at Madison House, and I loved it so much that I continued tutoring.”

By Cecilia Murphy