This article profiles the graduate program in Early Oral Intervention for Children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which is the result of several circumstances: (1) sizeable populations of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing residing in Mississippi were not being reached by early auditory intervention; (2) new technologies, such as cochlear implants, continue to advance to help this population access sound, provided substantial post-operative intervention is available; and (3) a collaborative relationship between USM and an OPTION school led to the graduate program's creation. Since 1995, the comprehensive undergraduate Education of the Deaf program at USM has collaborated with Magnolia Speech School (Magnolia), a private OPTION school 2 hours away in Jackson, Mississippi, that teaches children with hearing loss to communicate primarily through listening and spoken language and provides practicum and student teaching experiences for professionals preparing to work with school-aged children who are deaf or hard of hearing. This collaborative university-OPTION school relationship was an immediate success. The USM undergraduate students in deaf education receive instruction in auditory-based education from the Magnolia faculty, students, and families. In addition to learning from lectures, videotapes, and class discussions, students visit Magnolia several times to observe teaching demonstrations and to participate and assist in the classrooms. The Magnolia director also invites parents and children to the class, affording USM students an opportunity to speak to parents about choosing listening and spoken language for their child and their experiences raising a child in an auditory-based environment. This undergraduate-level course was the impetus to development a graduate program with a concentration in listening and spoken language. (Contains 1 table.)