By Danielle Capalbo

Four-year-old Lyonersay points to a drawing in one of his favorite books, “My Robot.”

“That’s me,” he says, his finger planted firmly on the cartoon likeness of a little boy. He moves his finger and points at the little boy’s robot.

To Michael Baulier, Lyonersay’s mentor at Dimock’s Preschool in Roxbury, he says, “That’s you. My big friend.”

Baulier, a junior English and secondary education major, began his work with Lyonersay in 2005. As a sophomore, he applied for co-op at Jumpstart, a national non-profit organization that prepares children for elementary school, and was hired as a team leader.

When he began, the job required him to train mentors, but not to be a mentor himself. When he was asked to work with Lyonersay, Baulier gladly accepted.

“It helped me relate with the mentors I was training,” he said.

Less than a year later, reading “My Robot,” Lyonersay made the profound connection between his relationship with Baulier and the relationship illustrated in the paperback children’s book.

“I finally knew he understood that I was his friend,” Baulier said.

Lyonersay was a genius, he said – an outgoing and happy-go-lucky child.

“It was clear he really loved Jumpstart and was benefitting from what we were doing,” he said.

Baulier said his success at Jumpstart proved to be an inspiration and a reminder of his desire to pursue education as a career.

“It really streamlined my passion for urban education,” he said. “I know there’s a need, and it’s a need that I can fill.”

Baulier said he has wanted to teach all his life. At Northeastern, he is in pursuit of a master’s degree in teaching.

He heard about Jumpstart for the first time in 2004, and researched the organization the following summer. Soon he was an active supporter and employee.

Even when his six-month co-op was done, Baulier dutifully promoted Jumpstart, using his membership in other organizations like the Resident Student Association to raise both funds and awareness.

“I knew I wanted to give back to Jumpstart,” he said.

Last December, he organized a book drive that put 60 children’s books in the hands of local preschool students. He also organized a bake sale that raised $60 in donations – enough for Jumpstart to buy voice recorders and turn some of its library into books-on-tape.

“I would say my work with Jumpstart has been my greatest college achievement,” Baulier said.

At Fairhaven High School in Fairhaven, Baulier’s mentor and English teacher Donna Cordeiro helped set his future in motion.

“She really included hands-on activities in the classroom,” he said of Cordeiro. “It really got the students excited about literature. It put a new spin on what we were learning.”

Cordeiro, who heads the English department, said even as a teenager Baulier distinguished himself through extensive community service.

“He leads by actions and he’s certainly a role model for other people,” she said. “He was extremely mature and it was easy to have a good relationship with him. He’ll be a fantastic teacher.”

Baulier said he hopes in the future to generate the same excitement around education and literature as Cordeiro did when he was her student.

“When you teach a student that literature and writing can be fun, they develop a passion for it they might otherwise have not,” he said.

Last semester, Baulier spent at least 30 hours working toward that goal. In honor of his favorite author, Charles Dickens, he compiled a teacher’s manual for “Great Expectations” – a guideline, he said, for keeping students engaged.

With some help from Cordeiro, he created activities, homework assignments, long-term projects and tests to accompany the text. “[It has] everything you need to teach ‘Great Expectations’,” he said.

In September, he will have the chance to put his own work to the test. Life will come full circle, he said, as he takes a job as a student teacher at one of two local public schools, John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science in Roxbury, or the Health Careers Academy, located on Northeastern’s campus.

Though Baulier will draw from his experience as a mentor in Jumpstart, his new students will be reading more sophisticated books than Lyonersay’s “My Robot.” Baulier will be teaching either 10th or 11th grade.

“I’m very nervous,” he said. “But, at the same time, I’m excited to be doing what I plan to do for a large portion of my life.”