Education Stories

Video: Operation Breakthrough helping kiddos reach their full potential

Founded in 1971 by two nuns, Sister Corita Bussanmas and Sister Berta Sailer, Operation Breakthrough serves more than 450 children daily with a mission to provide a safe educational environment for children in poverty. The has adapted through the decades to meet the needs of Kansas City’s low-income community, Operation Breakthrough CEO Mary Esselman said. Implemented…

Coding at age 3? Operation Breakthrough connects STEM to program’s circuitry

Two small boys are standing on stools at a workbench, pretending to talk on outdated handset telephones. They might not yet know how the phones work, but they’re clearly familiar with how to take them apart. And they do. A few feet away, three children from low-income families are on iPads beginning a new lesson….

Education network CAPS snags $145K from Kauffman Foundation

A homegrown education innovation network announced Wednesday it was awarded a $145,000 grant to expand its programming across the nation, courtesy of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) program began in the Blue Valley School District in 2009 and is now expanded to 33 programs encompassing 69 school districts…

Minddrive fuels youth development through hands-on STEM

Carlos Alonzo, a 15-year-old engineer at Minddrive, was always good at math. In the seventh grade, Alonzo’s teachers gave him the opportunity to skip ahead and take algebra. Although he enjoyed it and did well in the class, he ran into a problem: His school didn’t offer him an advanced class for eighth grade. That one-year…

Sandy Kemper-led YEP KC primes teen entrepreneurs for success

If all extraordinary students knew they were exceptional, the world would be a much more entrepreneurial place, said Sandy Kemper. “It’s the future of our city,” said Kemper, co-founder of YEP KC, about young talent. “If we can capture them early, before they go to college, we can create a network that can sustain them…