Year: 2019

“Odyssey is an expression of the Wisconsin Idea, where education is accessible to all citizens and learners,” said UW–Madison Vice Provost for Lifelong Learning and Dean of Continuing Studies Jeff Russell. “By allowing access, Odyssey creates a transformative learning experience for the students, their families, and the community at large.”

The cross-currents of the stories from students in UW–Madison’s Odyssey Project reflect the beat of daily life, sometimes fraught with emotion, sometimes light, carrying meanings that entertain and inspire listeners.

A Madison community program that works to jump-start the college careers of low-income adults through a free six-credit humanities course is yielding more than just academic benefits for many students, according to the first external evaluation in the program’s 16-year history. The evaluation found the Odyssey Project course helped students achieve an improved sense of self – a feeling …

Known as Odyssey Junior, the program works because its welcoming atmosphere allows children to build self-confidence and become more self-reliant. Those are empowering characteristics that create hope for the future as readily as the love of reading that program instructors work to instill each week, evaluators from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research within the School of Education …

Believing in the power of education to break a cycle of generational poverty, Bob chose at the time of Wanda’s death to use her retirement account to start an endowment to benefit Odyssey students. Now he is marking his 90th birthday with a surprisingly generous offer.

Read about Odyssey’s Assistant Director of Development and Community Partnerships, Jenny Pressman, and her decades of social justice work.

Albert Watson had a great deal on his plate, including working and raising a family, when he applied to the University of Wisconsin–Madison Odyssey Project. At the time, it was hard to see past the obstacles in his life. Watson completed the program—including its two-semester, six-credit course exploring English literature, philosophy, and history—in 2008, and he hasn’t looked …

“Often people don’t find a community of other working parents who face similar obstacles and are succeeding,” says Johnson. “We have drop-in tutoring two nights a week, celebrations, picnics, a Facebook group, a clinical social worker, academic counselor and financial advisers. It’s like nurturing a family.”