Judith Kolar: A PLuS for DePaul

A middle-aged woman with brown hair that hangs to her jaw line is sitting at her office desk, lost in introspection and pouring through documents on her desktop.

She is Judith Kolar, director of the Productive Learning Strategies Program—also known as PLuS—at DePaul University, and she is on a mission to make school and the workplace more accessible for students with learning differences.

The PLuS program is a free, year-round, comprehensive program designed to support DePaul students with documented learning disabilities (LD), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and/or other associated disabilities. PLuS serves nearly 500 students on campus and will soon merge with the Office of Students with Disabilities which serves an additional 300 students.

The newly created department will be named the Center for Students with Disabilities and Kolar will serve as the center's director.

Her experience in school is one of the main forces that drove her to choose education as her profession and eventually to work for PLuS.

Kolar's demeanor is engaging and friendly, but honest and direct as well. She is a critic of the teaching methods of her schoolgirl years. She considers the herd-like teaching methods of the baby boomer generations to be deeply inadequate for accommodating the diverse learning styles of each individual.

"You were in a large class that was taught as a group, rather than recognizing the individual learning modalities of each student," Kolar said. "You were all taught the same way, and you either learned it the way it was taught, or you got lower grades than what you were capable of showing."

Learning disabilities are varying disorders that negatively impact learning. Simply stated, they impact the way a person processes and conveys information. They can affect reading, writing, and other key skills needed to be successful in academia and the workplace.

The most familiar LD to people is dyslexia, which makes reading more difficult. Having a learning disability does not affect a student's general intelligence. In fact, many students with this diagnosis have abnormally high intelligence.

ADHD is not considered a learning disability. It does, however, cause students difficulties in regulating attention, staying organized, and managing their time.

Among the accommodations PLuS ensures for its students are extended time on exams, exam proctoring in the PLuS office to provide a distraction-free environment, readers and transcribers for exams, course selection advising, note-taking assistance, assistive technology, student advocacy, priority registration, and clinician services (one-on-one weekly hourly meetings) with LD specialists.

"It's difficult to understand why some people need access to these services and others don't," said one PLuS DePaul senior studying communication. "Not everyone's brain is hard wired to learn the same way."

"People with LD or ADHD are every bit as capable of grasping important classroom concepts, but are left behind because of poor organization or abnormal information processing," the PLuS student said. "DePaul students are lucky to have access to someone like Judy, who truly understands these obstacles and wants to give these students a fair shot at college."

Kolar was raised on the west side of Chicago in the Lawndale neighborhood. She received her undergraduate degree at Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers College, a small teachers college in downtown Chicago—now National-Louis University. She soon after began teaching elementary school in Skokie.

Seven years later, she took an interest in new legislation that recognized students with learning disabilities, which she calls "the invisible disabilities." She left Skokie to work on her master's degree full-time at the National College of Education.

After receiving her master's degree, Kolar worked with the learning disabilities coordinator at the District 1 office in the Chicago Public Schools. While there, she tested students for learning disabilities, set up resource rooms for those who were diagnosed with them and prepared teachers and students how to use the resource rooms in teaching and learning.

Kolar was eventually asked by the district superintendent to set up a self-contained classroom in one of the area high schools. One of the elementary schools in the district had a small population of 8th grade students who were 14 and 15 years old. Some of them had 2nd and 3rd grade reading levels.

Her classroom proved to be a necessary resource for the struggling students to be able to transition into high school.

Kolar later took an interest in a grant-funded position at the Lincoln Park Zoo to develop an environmental education program for teachers and students, incorporating the zoo as a living classroom for learning. The two years working on the grant project would extend into a 17-year career at the zoo.

During those years, she developed award wining environmental education programs for teachers, students, families, adults and the casual zoo visitor spending an afternoon leisurely at the zoo. She worked closely with zoo curators to ensure key science concepts in ecology-based education programming, rather than just petting cute little animals for visitors touring the zoo.

After 2 years, Kolar was asked to create the first formal Education Department at the zoo and was appointed their first Curator for Education. Her work at the zoo, she said gave her an opportunity to greatly broaden her understanding of science, with which she developed a deep and lasting fascination.

"The most important thing I began to understand is that science teaches you how to think," Kolar said. "If everyone could learn the simple basics of scientific thinking or processes, their everyday decision-making would be so much easier."

Colleagues at the PLuS office attest to her rigorous scientific pursuits inside and outside the classroom.

"Judy is extremely adventurous," said Lavonne Kopca, Learning Disability Specialist and 2-year employee at PLuS.

"This past summer she ‘went looking for Santa Claus' at the cluster of islands closest to the North Pole as part of an Arctic polar adventure. It just goes to show her dedication to always acquiring more knowledge about nature and the environment of the world we live in," Kopca said.

Kolar used her appreciation for science toward research in education technologies. She moved from the zoo to the Adler Planetarium, where she was Director of Education, specifically, because they were moving ahead with integrating technologies into the educational experience.

Kolar secured funding to set up a distance-learning classroom at the Adler, which allowed for direct communication and learning experiences between students in the classroom and scientists at the planetarium. She eventually brought the concept of assistive technology to the PLuS Program.

After leaving the planetarium, Kolar worked as a free-lance consultant for non-profit organizations in donor research and grant development to spend more time caring for her mother, whose health was declining.

During that time, she also heard of a part-time clinician position available in the PLuS Program at DePaul. She always knew that she wanted to return to working directly with students, and so took advantage of the opportunity.

"It was not long before DePaul became ingrained in my soul," she said. "DePaul really lives their mission and goals for students. I saw that after being here for a couple years."

Kolar firmly believes that people with disabilities are part of the diverse populations that DePaul serves.

"We are part of the mission of diversity and serving diverse groups, which is part of the strong underpinnings of DePaul," she said, and the support by the University for our students with disabilities has always been strong.

After a few years, Kolar was hired as the first Assistant Director of the PLuS Program and, eventually, Director. She has been working at PLuS for more than 9 years.

A very important and challenging part of her job, she says, is assisting students become less dependent on PLuS over time.

"We're here to advocate for students and help them to develop skills they need for success in college, but we also work with students to become self-advocates," Kolar said. "I always talk to the staff about ‘yes we give students our all, but what's the plan to move our students forward to gain more independence, to be more of a self-advocate, to understand their disabilities, how they learn best, and how to handle life, in general?'"

"I feel it's our responsibility to help our students gain the skills they need to segue into the workplace after graduation and be valuable, contributing members to society," she said.

Perhaps the main reasons Kolar is able to grapple with hardship in the lives of others who are struggling are the hardships she has faced.

"One of the tragedies of my life was the loss of my brother," she said. "My eldest brother died suddenly of a brain tumor that was considered inoperable in the mid 70s when he died."

"Today the surgery that is used to remove the same kind of tumor is as common as surgery for appendicitis," she said. Despite the tragedies she has faced, she is still able to appreciate the great strides that have been made in medical research.

Her enduring optimism may be a product of the life philosophy that she has come to espouse. "I think you ought to be objective about yourself," she said. "I think you have to understand that your road in life isn't necessarily smooth and that there are bumps along the way, but to identify as best you can, whether it's within your own strengths or the need to reach out to other resources, how to get over those bumps and to keep moving forward."