overcoming adversity and achieving dreams through higher education
“You are extraordinary!” UW’s new chancellor told Odyssey alumni as she visited Odyssey’s South Madison home on her second day on the job. Odyssey Codirector Emily Auerbach welcomed Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, gave her a brief overview of Odyssey’s 20-year history, and rapidly turned the program over to six alumni. Char Braxton, Odyssey ’06, read an …
Caption: Books from the OBB Library collection on their way to prisons around the state “Freedom begins with a book.” — Reginald Dwayne Betts, a formerly incarcerated Yale-educated lawyer, poet and founder of Freedom Reads Peter and Lauren from the Odyssey Beyond Bars team were on a tour of Dodge Correctional in May when they stopped …
Caption: APT’s Gavin Lawrence coached Odyssey students in readings from A Raisin in the Sun. Just tell me where you want to go to school and you’ll go. Just tell me what it is you want to be—and you’ll BE it. Whatever you want to be—Yessir! You just name it, son, and I hand you the …
“We make a choice each moment that affects the rest of our lives and the lives of everyone around us. The decision is about whether we are the situation we are in — or if the situation we are in is a stepping-stone leading to where we want to be.” – Eric, a student in …
Caption: Students from OBB’s English 100 course at Oakhill, spring 2022 In May, Odyssey Beyond Bars (OBB) concluded an incredible semester of growth in which we offered courses in three new prisons, in addition to multiple courses at Oakhill Correctional. I had the joy of touring the state and attending final class sessions for each …
UW–Madison may be only an hour’s drive from the Huber Correctional facility, but for Michael Lozano, caught in a cycle of incarceration, it might as well have been on the moon. By the time he was a teenager, Michael had committed felonies that became roadblocks to employment or anything else Michael tried to pursue to …
The Odyssey Project is excited to announce the addition of two new staff members/literacy instructors, Erin Celello and Ben Shannon. Both Erin and Ben trace their passion for Odyssey’s mission in part to a parent who was a first-generation college student, and both look forward to providing instruction for Odyssey alumni or Odyssey Beyond Bars …
July marks the official start of the 20th year of the UW Odyssey Project. Thirty new students have been selected to form the Class of 2023. Beginning in September, they will receive two semesters of free evening instruction in the humanities. “Having interviewed students all last month, I’m so excited to begin our 20th year …
Joy discovered Odyssey while working as a custodian at UW and found the program life-changing, a place where she felt unconditional love from staff determined to remove obstacles that got in her way. Five years later, Joy now contributes to Odyssey as one of more than 50 donors who have arranged for automatic monthly payments, …
As she stepped to the podium to accept her YWCA-Madison Woman of Distinction award last month, Odyssey teacher and Friends of Odyssey board member Professor Christy Clark-Pujara said, “I would like to thank Emily Auerbach for nominating me and serving as a role model for a community-serving, community-engaged scholar.” Wiping away tears, she called Odyssey …