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USC Receives $10 Million Gift for Students With Learning Differences

University of Southern California parents Walter G. and Marcia B. Kortschak have made a historic gift commitment of $10 million to establish an endowment for the creation of the USC Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity in the Division of Student Affairs at USC.

This gift is the largest received by the Division of Student Affairs in university history. The USC Kortschak Center will provide a broad array of innovative services to USC students with dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and other identified learning differences.

Under the direction of Dr. Edward Roth, current director of USCs Disability Services and Programs, and the supervision of Dr. Patricia Tobey, Associate Dean of Student Affairs responsible for academic support services, the USC Kortschak Center will offer enhanced academic support services such as individual learning strategy sessions, tutoring in academic disciplines, and state-of-the-art assistive technologies.

At the USC Kortschak Center, students will also have access to professionals outside the Center, including educational psychologists, occupational therapists, neuropsychologists within the university, as well as other learning specialists.

The USC Kortschak Center is the realization of the Kortschak family and USCs shared commitment to ensuring that every creative mind has the opportunity to thrive and succeed, regardless of learning style, said USC President-elect C. L. Max Nikias. The USC Kortschak Center will position the university at the forefront of both support and research for students with learning differences.

What is most exciting to our family is to have the opportunity to partner with USC to support students who learn differently and to provide these students with the supports necessary for them to reach their full academic and creative potential, said Marcia Kortschak. It is our hope that the USC Kortschak Center will inspire other universities to examine and improve upon their own level of support, emphasizing students abilities rather than their disabilities.

Walter and Marcia Kortschak are the parents of Andrew Kortschak, a second-year USC student, and Sarah Kortschak, who is an incoming freshman at USC next year. The Kortschaks $10 million commitment is among the largest gifts to USC from non-alumni parents in the universitys history.

In the past, students with special learning needs have received assistance through USCs Center for Academic Support and Disability and Services Programs. The USC Kortschak Center will not duplicate the current efforts of these groups, but rather expand on existing academic support services and focus on specific needs of students with learning differences.

We saw a need for the establishment of a separate center to help take our programs and services to another level of excellence, and theres no doubt that the USC Kortschak Center will help us achieve that. We are incredibly excited about this new partnership with the Kortschak family said USC Vice President for Student Affairs Michael L. Jackson.

The USC Kortschak Center will be based on a multi-disciplinary approach to assisting students. Because of the number of experts in fields related to learning differences at USC, the USC Kortschak Center will emphasize partnerships and collaboration with faculty and staff across the university. The center will become a field site for researchers and graduate students, attracting the most accomplished disability scholars in the nation.

We are excited to be partnering with a dedicated and outstanding group of educators to help further our familys passion for supporting students who learn differently, said Walter Kortschak. To our knowledge, there is no other center in the nation with a multi-disciplinary approach to enhancing learning and support strategies for this population of students.

Walter Kortschak is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and a managing member of WMAS Management Group located in Menlo Park, California. He is a senior advisor and former managing partner of Summit Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm that invests in profitable growth companies.