The IDC

Today, I feel the people running the Center are doing a great job, both on a
professional level and in their commitment to the subject, and I am sure it
will do really good things in the future.”
The Topors flew to Israel for the opening of the newly named Leah and
Naftali Ben-Yehuda Study Skills Center, where speakers included Avia
Chen and Shirley Gutman, whose lives it had changed.
Chen, a graduate of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy &
Strategy, has coped with learning disabilities and ADD her entire life. On
the first day of studies she came to the Center, and by working diligently, her
GPA went from a 60 the first year to a 90 by the end of her sophomore year.
“This was the first time that I felt that I was able to realize my abilities,” said
Chen at the Center’s celebration. “As a result of my success I understood
that I was capable of doing what I wanted to all along – study law.” Today
Chen is a freshman at the Radzyner School of Law.
Guttman, another success story, was diagnosed in high school with ADD.
Upon beginning her studies at IDC, she found that with her inability
to concentrate for long periods and lack of study tools, her university
education was in jeopardy. When medical treatment failed to help, she
sought assistance at the Study Skills Center, where she worked to improve
her study habits and learn to better organize her time. The results were
phenomenal, and she began tutoring other students with disabilities and
volunteering at weekly meeting to promote the Center.
It’s not unusual for the Center’s students to feel a profound wish to pay back
for the help they have received. Last summer, Adi came to Thomas saying
how much the Center had helped her life, and that she wanted to help out
in some way. “It feels like a circle of giving,” Adi says. “I’m sure other first
year students will face the same challenges and stresses I did, and so I want
to help them from my experience.”
This past summer, another of the Center’s students initiated a special 4-week
program for entering first year IDC students with learning disabilities. All
of the event’s lecturers and organizers volunteered their time and fifteen
participants came to learn a variety of skills related to reading, writing,
organizing and planning. There was even a laughter seminar, from the
school of psychology.
Sitting across from Thomas in the Center, it’s impossible not to feel the
dedication and passion she radiates. “I have witnessed many student
successes, small and large,” Thomas tells me. “Most of them just need skills,
direction, pumping up their self esteem, and recognizing their strength and
not only their weaknesses. They need help to become reconciled with who
they are, and to know that the learning disability or the ADD is a part of
them, but it’s not who they are.”
“they PrescriBeD ritAlin fOr me, But it DiDn’t helP…the ADD
BecAme sO Difficult it wAs hArD fOr me tO stuDy”
- David Shohat, establishing donor and IDC alumnus
IDC Vice President Jonathan Davis with Study Skills Center establishing donor
and IDC alumnus, David Shohat
30 < IDC Winter 2010
At the original launch of the Study Skills Center in 2007, Ruth Riesel,
establishing donor and IDC alumnus David Shohat and Rachel Thomas
A few days ago, a student phoned Thomas in excitement to share what had
just happened in class. “Her professor told the class he wanted to finish early
each week by eliminating the recess and just teaching straight through,”
Thomas tells me. “All the other students said great, but this young woman,
for the first time, and I think because of all the work she did, stood up and
said, ‘I’m sorry I need this recess. I cannot study 2 ½ hours straight.’ And
that’s really something – to say that in front of all the other students and
the professor, you have to be in a very healthy place with your disability.”
- Joy Pincus
“i hAve witnesseD mAny stuDent
successes, smAll AnD lArge.
mOst Of them Just neeD skills,
DirectiOn, PumPing uP their self
esteem, AnD recOgniZing their
strength AnD nOt Only their
weAknesses. they neeD helP tO
BecOme recOncileD with whO
they Are, AnD tO knOw thAt the
leArning DisABility Or the ADD is
A PArt Of them, But it’s nOt whO
they Are”
- Rachel Thomas, IDC Leah and Naftali Ben-Yehuda Study Skills Center director