Sometimes, the People We Support Change Us the Most
How one student's arrival is helping The Light House grow its clinical expertise and create new opportunities for students.
At The Light House, we spend a lot of time thinking about the difference we can make in the lives of the people we support. But sometimes, it's the people we support who end up changing us.
This year, one of those people is Brielle.
Brielle is a student at our Learning Campus with complex medical and physical needs, a contagious smile, and a genuine love of being around people. Although she doesn't communicate verbally, her excitement and personality shine through in her interactions with staff and peers.
Julie Hill, our Education Director, remembers meeting Brielle and her mother for the first time.
"From the moment I met Brielle when she and her mom came to tour The Light House, I knew there was something special about her. Her beautiful smile and genuine love for people shine through from that very first interaction."
When we began exploring how to welcome Brielle, we knew we had a strong educational program and a dedicated team. We also knew that meeting her needs would require us to develop supports we didn't yet have in place.
Building the Supports, Growing Our Expertise
Working alongside Brielle's family and school district, we developed a plan that included bringing an experienced registered nurse onto our team, establishing a dedicated nursing space, adding specialized transportation, and adapting her classroom environment.
Having a registered nurse at the Learning Campus brings a clinical perspective into our everyday work. We're strengthening our nursing procedures, improving how we coordinate student care, and creating more opportunities for staff training and collaboration.
This isn't just about supporting Brielle. It's about building a stronger clinical team and bringing that expertise into how we support all our students.
Our teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service providers have also had to stretch and adapt. Our speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists are working together in new ways, while staff are learning skills and taking on responsibilities that weren't previously part of their daily routines.
One example is Brielle's eye-gaze communication device. While our team has expertise in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), eye-gaze technology is new for some staff. It's been exciting to see Brielle use her eyes to communicate and engage with others, while our team learns alongside her.
One example is Brielle's eye-gaze communication device. While our team has expertise in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), eye-gaze technology is new for some staff. Watching Brielle use her eyes to communicate and engage with others has been exciting, and it's given our team another opportunity to expand its skills.
More Than Meeting Medical Needs
Sharon Pallatto, Brielle's Special Education Teacher, describes her as a happy, social student who is always smiling and eager to engage with the people around her.
And she's getting to experience school alongside her peers, both in the classroom and out in the community. Brielle has joined classmates on outings to Costco, Walmart, and the new inclusive playground at Camp Harkness.
These might seem like ordinary activities. But that's exactly what makes them important.
As Julie explains:
"We did not want inclusion to mean simply being physically present. We wanted it to mean belonging, participating, and experiencing."
We want Brielle to have opportunities to communicate, make choices, build friendships, learn, and enjoy the experiences that make school meaningful. Her medical needs require thoughtful planning and specialized support, but they shouldn't define the limits of her educational opportunities.
One Student, Lasting Impact
The nursing infrastructure, clinical expertise, staff training, and collaboration we're developing will benefit students across our Learning Campus. We're better prepared to address the needs of our current students and have expanded our ability to welcome others with more complex medical and physical needs in the future.
We've seen this happen before at The Light House. Sometimes a student or participant comes along whose needs push us to develop something new. We don't always have every answer at the beginning, and the process isn't always easy. But by being willing to adapt and build what is needed, we often discover that we're capable of much more.
We're grateful to Brielle's family for their advocacy, partnership, and trust in our team. And we're especially proud of the staff who have embraced new responsibilities, learned new skills, and put so much care into making her experience a positive one.
There's still more to learn and build, but it's exciting to see how the work we've done to support one student is already making our entire school stronger.
The people we support don't just benefit from what we build. They help shape what we become.
Kassidy Brown
Executive Director
