For Learners & Families
Blanche Podhajski Institute for Learner Success
Support for Learners & Families
“I founded the Stern Center based in science and fortified by hope. My vision was to honor learning differences and improve lives. Today, more than four decades on, the Stern Center extends that intersection of science and hope to future generations of learners and remains dedicated to learning for all.”
-Dr. Blanche Podhajski, President Emerita
The Blanche Podhajski Institute for Learner Success honors President Emerita and founder Blanche Podhajski, Ph.D., (pronounced Pah-DYE-skee) who led our nonprofit organization through its first 38 years of success. Her inspiring philanthropic commitment in 2026, matched by Dr. Peter Stern and Margie Stern, endows a fund that helps us transform lives for the learners of today and tomorrow at the Stern Center for Language and Learning.
Through the Institute, learner success expands and strengthens. Endowment proceeds reduce the direct costs of vital specialized services for modest and middle-income Stern Center families, multiplying through visionary generosity the life-changing impact of timely educational insight. Learn more about income-based assistance here.
Funding from the Institute also supports ongoing innovation in our programs for learners, and pilots that demonstrate and nurture educational excellence, with special emphasis on the first service the Stern Center offered when Dr. Podhajski began her storied career: life-changing learner evaluations.
Stern Center Founder Dr. Blanche Podhajski
Dr. Podhajski founded the Stern Center in 1983 with a $50,000 grant from the Bernice and Milton Stern Foundation. Over 38 years at the helm of the organization, she built it into a nationally recognized resource for learning evaluation, academic instruction, and educator excellence, reaching learners and teachers across Vermont and well beyond our borders. Podhajski earned her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in communication disorders, specializing in learning disabilities, and served as Clinical Associate Professor of Neurological Sciences at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. She is co-author of the Sounds Abound Program, lead author of the Comprehensive Reading Course for Educators, and developer of Building Blocks for Literacy®, a program for early childhood educators and parents. In 2015 she received the Turrell Fund’s Champion for Children Medal of Honor. President Emerita Podhajski retired in 2021 after a 50-year career in education.
Peter & Margie Stern
Dr. Peter Stern and Margie Stern have been pillars of the Stern Center since Blanche Podhajski first partnered with Peter’s parents, Milton and Bernice Stern, to launch the organization in 1983. Both Peter and Margie have served as Board Chairs — Peter as the Center’s founding Chair, now its Honorary Chair— and for more than 40 years, they have championed and stewarded our growth and ensured the success of our mission on behalf of those we are proud to serve.
