Whoopi Goldberg To Receive Landmark College LD Luminary Award

by Mark DiPietro



PUTNEY, Vt. - Academy Award-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg will receive the Landmark College LD Luminary Award at the College’s fundraising gala, “Uncut Diamonds: Brilliance Through Innovative Education,” on Tuesday, April 29, in New York City.



Goldberg, co-host of ABC-TV’s “The View” and the star of such motion pictures as The Color Purple, Sister Act, and Ghost (for which she won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), has been outspoken about her lifelong struggle with dyslexia, which went undiagnosed until she was a teenager.



“The Landmark College LD Luminary Award recognizes people in the public eye who are helping to demystify learning disabilities,” said Dr. Peter Eden, president of Landmark College. “A Landmark College LD Luminary is someone who can educate society regarding the inadequate and archaic practices in higher education when it comes to bright individuals who learn differently - for example, due to dyslexia, or ADHD, or ASD. Whoopi Goldberg is an excellent example of a person who, despite the challenges she faced in school, found a way to learn, found strategies to help her read - and through determination and resolve, has risen to great heights. Whoopi now influences countless others with LD, as they search for the right educational model and the confidence needed to turn a difference into a strength.”

In a 2005 interview with The Academy of Achievement, Goldberg recalled that, when she was a child, teachers were confounded by her inability to read even though her comprehension skills were strong. “If you read to me, I could tell you everything that you read,” Goldberg said. “They knew I wasn’t lazy, but what was it?”



After years of enduring derogatory remarks about her difficulty with reading, Goldberg discovered that she is dyslexic and began working at learning “how to learn things,” as she told Howard Stern in a 2013 interview. “Reading is great,” she told Stern. “I love it now that I have it down.”



The Landmark College LD Luminary Award will be one of the highlights of the April 29 “Uncut Diamonds” fundraising gala, which supports the College’s $10 million capital campaign, “Pioneering Pathways, Changing Lives.” The specific goal of the capital campaign is to build a new Science, Technology and Innovation Center, further establishing Landmark College’s commitment to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and educational innovation.



The public phase of the $10 million capital campaign launched in February with a $2 million matching pledge from the Tambour Foundation, motivated by Landmark College alumna Nicole Goodner MacFarlane, who will receive the Landmark College Accolade at the April 29 gala. The event, which will be held at ROBERT, at the Museum of Arts and Design, will also feature a live auction led by Simon Teakle of Simon Teakle Fine Jewelry and Objects. Auction items include original artwork by Landmark College students.