overcoming adversity and achieving dreams through higher education
Despite unimaginable hardship, students in all four parts of our program — Odyssey, Odyssey Junior, Onward Odyssey and Odyssey Beyond Bars — have triumphed this semester as they learned with us online. Adults in the Class of 2021 brought to life Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, penned letters in the style of Frederick Douglass and imagined Ebenezer …
After a childhood of homelessness, abuse and teen pregnancy, Shanita Lawrence found herself incarcerated at age 18 and separated from her young son. “I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for the obstacles I’ve overcome, good and bad,” Shanita observed. She was honored on November 21 with a Transformation Award from MOSES, …
We celebrate Thanksgiving this year at a time of hardship and heartbreak. Our UW Odyssey Project team wants to take a deep breath and share what makes us feel grateful and hopeful. We remain thankful for: 1. The resillience of our students As we gather online each week with our Odyssey, Onward Odyssey, Odyssey Junior, and Odyssey …
“Odyssey gave me a voice through writing, and for that I am thankful beyond words,” writes alumna René Robinson, Odyssey ’08. In her graduation poem, “My Journey,” René spoke of her discovery of the humanities and becoming a “Google queen,” anxious to find out more about literature, philosophy, and history. She ended her poem with …
“Odyssey helped me find my voice, that courage I have to speak,” remarked Odyssey alum Corey Saffold at our 2018 “Night of the Living Humanities” fundraiser. In late October of any other year, you might have found Frida Kahlo, Socrates, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Shakespeare sharing refreshments at the University Club for Odyssey’s signature fundraiser. …
“I am a first-time voter and just cast my vote,” said one 63-year-old Odyssey student. Another in his early thirties admitted, “I didn’t vote four years ago . . . but now I will.” Both made the case for voting this fall at Odyssey’s recent event, “A Celebration of Voting,” held virtually on October 3. …
Last fall we were so excited to offer the first credit-bearing course in a Wisconsin prison in over 100 years. (This Isthmus article from February 2020 describes the fall program and its moving December graduation ceremony at Oakhill Correctional Institution.) With all prisons closed to visitors and internet access difficult to arrange, we worried that Odyssey Beyond Bars …
“Odyssey gave me a voice, and for that, I am thankful beyond words,” remarked René Robinson, an Odyssey alumna and member of the Friends of Odyssey Board of Directors. René and several other Odyssey graduates share their early experiences with voting in this short video, as well as in their winning entries from our Odyssey contest, …
“I believe in the philosophy that everyone deserves a chance, and Odyssey is the chance I need to expand my horizons and learn,” Burnett Reed wrote when he applied for the Odyssey Project. A special education assistant who overcame a difficult childhood in Milwaukee, Burnett hopes to become a teacher and to inspire his five-year-old …
Throughout the summer, Odyssey staff and alumni have gathered online on Wednesday nights to keep learning, share heartbreaking experiences, and support each other during these unprecedented times. We have explored vocabulary words ranging from asphyxiation to heterogeneity, viewed art by Faith Ringgold, Frida Kahlo, and other artists of color, sampled songs by Aretha Franklin and …