overcoming adversity and achieving dreams through higher education
“Before I got accepted into the Odyssey Class of 2022,” Yasmine wrote on her final assignment for 2021, “I was like an oyster in its shell — closed off from the entire world around me. As the classes go on, I am starting to break out. I love the person I’m becoming, and that’s all …
“Odyssey is one of our best examples of the Wisconsin Idea in action,” Becky Blank observed. We proudly announce that outgoing UW–Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, winner of the 2022 Friend of Odyssey Award, will speak at our graduation ceremony on May 4, 2022. She has been a tireless advocate for Odyssey, whether introducing our presentation …
Josephine Lorya, alumna of Odyssey’s Class of 2008, received the 2021 ATHENA Young Professional Award last month from The Business Forum Madison in recognition of her work as a Dane County social worker, multicultural performer, and organizer of donations for her native Sudan. Odyssey encouraged Josephine on her journey to both bachelor’s and master’s degrees …
“At a November 11 ceremony, Robert “Bob” Auerbach – UW professor emeritus and father of UW Odyssey Project Co-Director Emily Auerbach – accepted a 2021 Outstanding Individual Philanthropist award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals-Greater Madison Chapter for his transformative support of Odyssey over the past 20 years and for his lifetime of giving money …
Odyssey students this year have endured incredible hardship, from contracting COVID themselves to losing loved ones, from facing eviction notices to fleeing abusive partners, from going into early labor to being racially profiled. As success coach Brian Benford (Odyssey ’07) puts it, “They are brave beyond words as they face housing insecurities, the lack of …
The UW Odyssey Project proudly announces its successful nomination of 92-year-old Robert “Bob” Auerbach for a 2021 Outstanding Individual Philanthropist award from AFP-Greater Madison for their National Philanthropy Day. At a November 11 ceremony at the Overture Center, Bob humbly accepted this award on behalf of his late wife, Wanda, and all the extraordinary Odyssey …
“This experience has enabled me to look outside the box that I’ve kept myself securely in for so long. I am not just a number or a lost cause like society has labeled me. I am a survivor, a resilient, strong woman.” –Emma, “inside” student from Professor Carmen Heider’s Inside-Out course Each Tuesday, students from …
“You’re only remembered by what you did in your time on earth, and I want to be remembered as a valiant man that despite his mistakes and hardships took a horrific situation and turned it into a story of resilience and victory.” –Mark, a student in English 100 at Oakhill this fall Hooray! Odyssey Beyond …
We enter fall and the holidays with keen excitement, thankful to be back to in-person teaching and meeting classrooms full of new students. Some programs suspended during the pandemic are resuming, like UW–Parkside’s Shakespeare Prison Project at Racine Correctional, with strong demand among students. And new technologies developed during the pandemic are allowing more people …
“For over a century, UW–Madison has been guided by the Wisconsin Idea: the principle that higher education should influence and benefit people’s lives outside the traditional boundaries of the classroom. The Odyssey Project, which offers humanities classes to adult or non-traditional students who face barriers to accessing higher education, is an exemplary model of the …