overcoming adversity and achieving dreams through higher education
In June, Saffold was named a University of Wisconsin System Regent, joining 17 other Regents as the non-traditional student representative. The Board of Regents governs over the state-wide University of Wisconsin System and addresses the needs of the 13 universities, sets admission standards and approves university budgets, according to the UW Regent website. “I’m still …
“The UW Odyssey Project, providing free humanities courses for adults near the poverty level, received a new $3 million endowment a few weeks ago. Major gifts from Pleasant Rowland and John and Tashia Morgridge among others will enable Emily Auerbach’s terrific program to continue moving people from homelessness and incarceration to college degrees and community …
“In the midst of a highly insecure time, the University of Wisconsin–Madison Odyssey Project secured $3 million in gifts, a base for the future of Odyssey and its transformational work in breaking the cycle of generational poverty through access to education. Odyssey graduates, over 90 percent of whom are students of color, have journeyed from homelessness to …
“We must give men and women in our marginalized communities more opportunities to develop their voices, and we must equip people entangled in the criminal justice system with the tools they need to transcend it.”
“The 60-year-old father of five has spent the last three decades supporting Madison’s most vulnerable and marginalized population working for community-based organizations in a variety of roles. The former alderperson for Madison’s District 12 on the near east side is currently the success coach for the Madison Odyssey Program, a program that has helped put …
“Our families are hit hard because they’re already struggling paycheck to paycheck,” Auerbach said. “If they’re laid off, they can’t provide food on the table, can’t provide the basics. It’s really hard to think about school. How can you think about Socrates and Shakespeare when you can’t feed your family?” https://odyssey.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/506/2020/05/zoom-graduation.mp4
“Odyssey Director Emily Auerbach opened the ceremony: “This is our 17th year, and we’ve never done something like this before. Though we can’t be in a grand ballroom and share hugs, we can still be together and have people join us from other states and even other countries. We’re all here to celebrate the amazing resilience …
“This pandemic has really highlighted the discrepancies, especially for students of color who have already been struggling with lower incomes and fewer resources, and now are being hit disproportionately hard by schools closing and jobs laying them off and lack of support systems around them,” UW Odyssey Project Director Emily Auerbach tells Madison365
“This crisis highlights economic inequities. To meet online with Odyssey’s class of 2020, we delivered rented laptops to students dependent on libraries to connect. But how can students focus on Socrates and Toni Morrison when they’ve lost their jobs, have hungry kids home from school, are trapped in small apartments with abusive partners, can’t pay …
“I’m happy to say that Wisconsin is now on board with offering credit-bearing courses to students in prison,” Moreno said. “There’s a tremendous demand for them. When we finished the English 100 class this last fall, many of the students came up to me and the instructor, Kevin Mullen, and said, ‘Okay, this was wonderful. …