Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Promising progress
Rise School celebrates first anniversary
By Piper Huddleston
Staff Reporter

Jakob Westbrook, 2, used to be a shy and a quiet kid, but after attending the Rise School for one year, he dives into a group of people like he is everybody’s best friend, said Marla Westbrook, Jakob’s mother.

“I am so thankful for what the Rise School has done for Jakob,” she said. “He could not have learned to be confident and assertive anywhere else but Rise.”

To honor the Rise School’s first anniversary, members of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity carried the children on their shoulders to present the game ball to officials at Saturday’s football game against Northwestern State (La.).

Kathleen Cooter, director of Rise and Starpoint Schools, said the school also hosted a party last Thursday for donors and community members.

The Rise School is an early childhood educational center for children with Down syndrome between the ages of 18 months and 6 years. The school also serves as an on-campus training site for TCU students in the School of Education.

Katie Urban, a senior elementary and special education major, said when she first started volunteering at Rise last year, Jakob cried all day because he was not used to being separated from his parents.

“Now Jakob is starting to talk,” Urban said. “He understands daily routines and he can even hold a fork at lunch time.”

Cooter said the school specializes in teaching children language development, motor skill development, social and self help skills.

“Rise School students have really progressed over this past year,” she said. “Kids that couldn’t walk are walking, kids that couldn’t talk are talking and kids that didn’t play with other kids are playing.”

Urban said the young children are eager to learn.

“If I am having a bad day and I come to the school to volunteer, I leave with a smile on my face,” Urban said.

Cooter said the goals for the program were to offer TCU students hands-on work with small children who have developmental delays and to offer quality preschool programming to a small group of children with Down syndrome so they will be prepared for kindergarten in public schools.

Rise has become an active preschool program which has had over 4,000 hours of TCU volunteer and student participation, she said.

Piper Huddleston
k.p.huddleston@student.tcu.edu