The Center is named for Augusta K. “Gussie” Levy, a longtime teacher and lifelong learner who epitomized skill and commitment needed to teach children that had previously been labeled as unteachable.

Gussie was utterly selfless and unassuming, her mind was brilliant, and she was persistent and determined in overcoming obstacles in working toward a goal, especially when the goal was educating children.

Gussie taught at public schools in the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn. When her success in teaching hard-core non-readers to read became widely known in the school, the principal appointed her as a specialized reading teacher. Students in any grade who had trouble reading, and who were labeled as failures, were sent to her class.

She developed specific methods of teaching students at different ability levels and with diverse causes of reading deficiencies that include a peer tutoring system which helped to further develop skills, increase self-confidence and improve behavior. She was an early advocate of a multi-sensory approach to teaching as she recognized that each child learns best through different sensory modalities: visual, auditory and tactile-kinesthetic.

After the death of her husband Benjamin, she relocated to Maryland to be near her family. In her 70s’, Gus took courses toward a Master’s degree at the University of Maryland. Her purpose was to gain the accreditation needed to develop programs to help public school teachers succeed in teaching language arts where other systems had failed these challenged children. Illness cut short this goal.

In her late 80s and early 90s she served as a volunteer at the Ivymount School for exceptional children in Rockville, Maryland, where she continued to inspire children and to mentor other teachers.

Augusta Levy passed away in 1998 but, not before helping countless children gain the achievement of literacy. She showed by her life that everyone can learn, and that everyone deserves a real chance.