CHC in the Press: Schwab Learning Center Opens New Dyslexic-Friendly ‘Innovation Lab’

February 17, 2023, News

For years, the Schwab Learning Center (SLC) has been a place for Stanford University students with dyslexia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other learning differences to embrace their strengths, address challenges and better understand the ways their minds work. With its new home at Children’s Health Council (CHC) in Palo Alto, the center’s reach is now expanding beyond Stanford to the wider community, offering high school students and students from other college campuses the opportunity to access its services.

“We opened the door to high school students in October, and we are already getting a very positive response,” Schwab Learning Center Director Nicole Ofiesh said.

For years, the Schwab Learning Center (SLC) has been a place for Stanford University students with dyslexia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other learning differences to embrace their strengths, address challenges and better understand the ways their minds work. With its new home at Children’s Health Council (CHC) in Palo Alto, the center’s reach is now expanding beyond Stanford to the wider community, offering high school students and students from other college campuses the opportunity to access its services.

“We opened the door to high school students in October, and we are already getting a very positive response,” Schwab Learning Center Director Nicole Ofiesh said.

“To me, letters are negotiable. I tell a lot of children and young adults, ‘Reading is linear, but as a dyslexic you can leap; you jump over letters; you can fly’,” Gershoni said. That cognitive flexibility, knack for making unexpected connections, and “prismatic” way of seeing the world, he said, is what has helped so many dyslexic luminaries, from Albert Einstein to Steve Jobs to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, achieve big things.

“In almost every industry, there’s a dyslexic at the top who is responsible for throwing out the rulebook and re-imagining the way we do things,” he said. “If you acknowledge dyslexia as a strength, you realize that you are capable, you are brilliant. You see the world differently — and that’s remarkable.”

Designed to be inclusive of a range of learning preferences, the multipurpose area, which Gershoni likened to an innovation lab, offers floor-to-ceiling whiteboards; cozy and quiet zones; a sticker wall for sharing notes about feelings and experiences; colorful graphics; inspirational quotes (including one from Charles Schwab: “I have never believed in waiting around for perfection”); moveable furniture; and comfortable spots for collaboration. Students are advised to “leave your assumptions at the door,” and can stand or move as they work, and experiment with different tools and working styles.

The center is endowed by the Charles Schwab and Helen Schwab Foundation. The investor and financial executive Charles Schwab, an alumnus of Stanford, is dyslexic, which he realized thanks to his son’s diagnosis at the Children’s Health Council.

“The SLC has come full circle now that we’re here at CHC,” noted Lambert.

Excerpted from “Schwab Learning Center Opens New Dyslexic-Friendly ‘Innovation Lab’.” Read the full article in Palo Alto Online.

Source: Palo Alto Weekly | Schwab Learning Center Opens New Dyslexic-Friendly ‘Innovation Lab’, https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2023/01/28/schwab-learning-center-opens-new-dyslexic-friendly-innovation-lab | © 2023 Palo Alto Online
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