As this summer ends, Sanford Jones congratulates a granddaughter just offered one of the 30 coveted spots in the new Odyssey Class of 2025 set to begin in September. Sanford has a participation record that will be hard to beat, with a son, brother, niece, and sister graduating from Odyssey, a wife attending Odyssey Senior, as well as his own completion of Odyssey, Odyssey Senior, and Odyssey Beyond Wars for veterans. In one poem, Sanford describes coming from Gary, Indiana, “steel country, fire, soot, and smoke, from the projects to the military, from young black man lost to grown black man found.” Read more about the Jones family and sample more of Sanford’s writing below.
Many Odyssey families can boast of several generations involved in the program, from children in Odyssey Junior to elders in Odyssey Senior. For the Jones family, it began in 2004 when Parris Jones was admitted into the second year of the program. A 49-year-old paramedic from the Fire Department of Gary, Indiana with a metal plate in his head, Parris came to Madison to care for his ailing mother. “I just happened upon an information pamphlet about the Odyssey Program and it interested me. The staff motivated me and helped me believe in myself to the point where I could succeed.”
Four years later, mother-daughter duo R.J. and Ronnie Jones completed Odyssey, enjoying the way they could compete with and support each other in class while Ronnie’s three-year-old daughter attended an early version of Odyssey Junior in the nearby HeadStart classroom. At graduation, Ronnie thanked her Uncle Parris for introducing her to Odyssey, thanked her mother for being her classmate, and described her experience:
“My dream got deferred. As a single mother, school wasn’t high on my list of priorities. The Odyssey Project changed that! Odyssey has been a breath of fresh air! It has acquainted my mind with the works of Thoreau, Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, Plato, Socrates, and many more.
Langston Hughes once expressed that dreams can be very delicate and should be tenderly nurtured. For me, that’s exactly what the Odyssey Project did! My dreams for higher education at times seemed to be unreachable and fragile. The Odyssey Project meticulously nurtured my dreams from intangible to tangible!”
Not to be outdone, Sanford and Mwai Jones became the first father-son duo to attend Odyssey together in the Class of 2010. Thanking his “Pops” for talking him into applying for the class, Mwai writes, “I have learned that I don’t know as much as I thought I did. I have judged books by their covers, but now I am reading the books first.” Sanford called his two-semester journey with his son life changing, noting, “I no longer feel I can’t go back to school.”
In the summer of 2023, Sanford and his wife, Yulanda, attended the new Odyssey Senior, sharing stories from their past. Asked to describe one of the best moments in his life, Sanford pointed to his wedding day in 1988 at the courthouse. Yulanda recalled a series of wonderful moments in her life as she watched their children start families of their own: “We have 16 grandchildren and 8 great-grands . . . and children at my daycare who call me Granny. I am so blessed.”
Sanford then joined the inaugural Odyssey Beyond Wars two-semester series, 2023-2024. Sanford found fellowship with other veterans as he shared stories of his time in the Army while earning an additional six UW-Madison credits in English composition and creative writing. He wrote about getting into trouble in the ‘hood as a youth, causing his hardworking mother to chase after him:
“My mom would show up in the middle of a gang fight to find her two sons and demand we get in the car and go home. We would be doing things we knew were wrong and someone would yell, ‘Here comes the paddy wagon!’ That meant my mom in the blue station wagon on the prowl to find her sons, and she wasn’t leaving until she had us.
I joined the Army to keep my mom off of those streets because if I was out there, she was out there. Most of my bad boy friends died in those streets or went to prison, but thanks to the persistence of Mrs. Bessie Jones, all of her sons lived to be senior citizens.”
Most recently, Sanford and Yulanda encouraged a granddaughter to apply for Odyssey’s Class of 2025. In her application, Abigail explained her reasons for applying:
“I want to be a part of the Odyssey Project family because I have heard many wonderful things from past and present students and family members. As a shy and timid person, I believe becoming part of this community will help me connect with others who share similar experiences. This opportunity will enable me to step out of my shell and provide a solid foundation as I begin my journey within the UW system.”
Abigail dreams of becoming a special education teacher. We look forward to beginning the 22nd year of the multigenerational Odyssey Project next month with another Jones on board for the journey!