Low-income adults complete first stage of post-high school odyssey

Shakespeare, Plato and Michelangelo are just a few of the figures economically disadvantaged adults explored through the UW–Madison Odyssey Project, a new, free humanities course taught in South Madison.

More than 20 students will be honored Wednesday, May 26, for their achievement at a graduation ceremony at 7 p.m. in Morphy Hall, Mosse Humanities Building. Speakers and guests will include Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Chancellor John D. Wiley.

Through the Odyssey Project, students learn about great works of literature, history, philosophy, art history and music. Students who have completed the program have worked since September with UW–Madison faculty members and will receive three or six credits in integrated liberal studies.

“Our students are profoundly different now,” says Emily Auerbach, professor of English and the project’s director, “and so are all of us who have worked with them. The humanities cut to the core of what it means to be human, to become full citizens, and to struggle for justice and equality.”

“I see the world through a whole new pair of eyes. I feel like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon and can’t stop reading,” writes a participant, who hopes to become a writer.

Students receive free tuition, books, child care, writing assistance and individual educational counseling.

Many were the first in their families to go beyond high school. “Before this class, I never dreamed someone like me could go to college,” writes a father of five who hopes to earn a social work degree.

The graduating class ranges in age from 18 to 55, with 95 percent from underrepresented ethnic minorities.

“We are very different,” writes one shy student from Mexico, “but all of us come to class to make a difference in our lives.”

Project sponsors include the College of Letters and Sciences, the Evjue and Quixote foundations, the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the UW–Madison Division of Continuing Studies, Wisconsin Public Radio’s Jean Feraca, the South Madison Public Library, and the South Madison Health and Family Center-Harambee on South Park Street, where classes were held.

For information, contact Auerbach, eauerbach@dcs.wisc.edu, 262-3733.