overcoming adversity and achieving dreams through higher education
The UW Odyssey Project, an award-winning jump-start program in the humanities for adults overcoming adversity, sponsored a contest for the best short essay convincing non-voters to vote. This article contains excerpts from 15 participants, both current and former students.
“Derrick was someone who didn’t even know his own gifts, but who found his voice and recognized his own power in the course,” Auerbach says. “When people explore works of art, they see themselves and the world in new ways, and their lives change.”
The Odyssey Project helps create an opportunity for people who had given up on or been forced to avoid pursuing higher education.
The greater Madison community is invited to attend the inspiring and memorable graduation ceremony for students of the UW Odyssey Project class of 2018 on May 2 at the Great Hall of Memorial Union that will feature guest speaker Judge Everett Mitchell.
In 2008 Sherri Bester graduated from the Odyssey Project, University of Wisconsin–Madison’s two-semester humanities course for adults facing obstacles to a college education. That achievement inspired her daughter Keziah, who participated in a related program for kids called Odyssey Junior in 2015-16.
It is both a physical space and a broader philosophy, one rooted in building relationships — connecting UW–Madison with an area whose residents historically have had less access to the university.
“I want to learn more, I want to listen more, I want to grow more,” writes Bruce Moore as he completes this year’s two semester Odyssey Project.
“I wish cancer got cancer and died.” This was Tandalaya Taylor’s seven-word poem for a class assignment through the Odyssey Project at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Emily Auerbach, a woman who has dedicated her life to helping adult learners overcome seemingly insurmountable barriers to higher education, has won the 2018 ATHENA Award.
Emily Vander Velden will help low-income adults overcome obstacles to higher education.