Rockhurst Students, Operation Breakthrough Mutually Benefit from Partnership

In 2019, Rockhurst began a service-learning partnership with Operation Breakthrough, the largest early learning center in the Kansas City region.

Under the agreement, Rockhurst occupational therapy and speech-language pathology students work with some of the hundreds of kids at Operation Breakthrough, learning how to properly evaluate children and provide intervention.

Now in its 50th year, Operation Breakthrough provides education, social services, and health to more than 700 children each day. Rockhurst students’ assistance means Operation Breakthrough can serve more children.

“I love our partnership with Rockhurst University,” said CEO Mary Esselman. “It allows us to provide OT and speech services to our earliest learners. We want to make sure that each child reaches critical developmental milestones as they move on into kindergarten and their school years and so what that partnership does is it allows us to expand the services that we're able to provide to some of our youngest learners.”

Joan Delahunt, associate professor for occupational therapy, sees the partnership as a means for students to grow both professionally and personally.

“[Operation Breakthrough] serves so many different needs for the community,” she said, “so I do feel like if you're looking at this as a potential opportunity you just need to be very open-minded about it and know that you're going to learn a lot but you're also going to be encouraged to grow a lot as well.”

The partnership allows students to get outside the classroom to gain valuable real-world experience in Kansas City’s urban core.

“It's so incredibly beneficial to be able to have real hands-on experience while you're still in school,” said Francie Hubbert, a graduate Communication Sciences and Disorders student at Rockhurst. “You learn theory in classrooms, you hear all these facts, statistics, and things like that, but it's really wonderful to get to see that in practice. You get to get real-life experiences and opportunities that you wouldn't otherwise have if you were just in a classroom or a university clinic.”

It also allows speech pathology students to work directly with OT students. This allows interprofessional collaboration that typically doesn’t occur until careers begin.

“It's been really special to work with the OT's here because we don't get to do that in the classroom at all,” said CSD grad student Kyrsten Mormino. “It's really special to get to see what other therapists do, too.”

The comprehensive learning opportunities the partnership provides will have a lasting impression on RU students as they move into the professional world.

“I've learned so much,” Hubbert said. “It's such a unique setting and so I would absolutely recommend it to any student who's looking to work in the early intervention age group.”