{"id":3432,"date":"2025-11-17T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/?p=3432"},"modified":"2026-04-03T12:55:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:55:17","slug":"usc-dornsife-jep-serves-and-educates-multiple-generations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/usc-dornsife-jep-serves-and-educates-multiple-generations\/","title":{"rendered":"How a USC Dornsife service program shapes multiple generations of local families and Trojans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n USC Dornife\u2019s JEP House, headquarters for the Joint Educational Project, has served as home to generations of service-minded Trojans and community members. (Photos: Olga Burymska.) \n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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How a USC Dornsife service program shapes multiple generations of local families and Trojans<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
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\n\n \n Families in local schools \u2014 and families of Trojans \u2014 are returning to the same program decades later, as beneficiaries or volunteers, creating a multigenerational ripple effect.\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n By<\/span>Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n \n November 17, 2025<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Patricia Perez grew up just down the street from USC in the 1990s. She fondly remembers being tutored in math and English by Trojan undergraduates through USC Dornsife\u2019s Joint Educational Project (JEP<\/a>). Now a special education assistant for students with behavioral issues, she recalls accompanying her mother \u2014 who worked at USC\u2019s School of Early Childhood Education<\/a> and is also named Patricia Perez \u2014\u00a0 to campus for JEP-hosted potlucks as a child. \u201cI would run around the JEP House,\u201d she says with a smile.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>
Patricia Perez (top right) with her mother, Patricia Perez, and daughters, Sophia and Nicole Plancarte, all of whom have benefited from JEP\u2019s programs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Decades later, Perez is watching history repeat itself. Her daughters, Nicole Plancarte, 14, and Sophia Plancarte, 11, have participated in JEP since preschool. They now benefit from several JEP initiatives at their school, the James A. Foshay Learning Center near USC. These included WonderKids<\/a>, a hands-on STEM education program, and Little Yoginis<\/a>, which teaches children the basics of yoga.<\/p>\n

What began more than 50 years ago as a modest, community service program designed to serve USC\u2019s surrounding neighborhoods, JEP has since evolved into one of the university\u2019s most enduring initiatives \u2014 one whose impact spans generations. Today, some 2,000 USC students volunteer annually in nearly 120 K-12 classrooms.<\/p>\n

The Plancarte-Perez family exemplifies JEP\u2019s multigenerational influence. When her daughters first started WonderKids, both were shy and rarely spoke in class, Perez says. By the end of their WonderKids journey, they were asking questions and had much more confidence when speaking to adults. \u201cJEP has instilled values in my girls and given them tools that they\u2019ll use throughout their lives,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

For some Trojan families, volunteering with JEP has also become a multigenerational legacy.<\/p>\n

Juan Carlos Whyte-Lira \u201994, an immigrant from Guatemala whose parents are of Jamaican and Latin American descent, served as a classroom tutor at the Foshay Learning Center in the early \u201990s. Then majoring in music recording before later switching to sociology<\/a>, he encouraged his students \u2014 many of whom were Black or Latino and came from working-class families \u2014 to see USC as a place they belonged. \u201cI would talk to them and say, \u2018Hey, you guys can make it too, like me,\u2019\u201d says Whyte-Lira, who is now an ownership services specialist at the Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor.<\/p>\n