Odyssey Project offers a promising journey of hope, transformation

The walls of Emily Auerbach’s office are crowded with photos that show the outcomes of hard-fought success.

They reveal the unabashed joy and pride that come from staring down fear and beating the odds through hard work and true grit. The pictures are of her past and current students in the UW–Madison Odyssey Project, a program that for the last seven years has given adults facing economic barriers to education a chance to start college for free.

Each year, 30 students, some with the ink still wet on their GED certificates, tackle an interdisciplinary course in the humanities, diving into great works of literature, American history, moral philosophy and art history, along with music and theater performances. From Socrates and Shakespeare to Toni Morrison and Thoreau, the students read, write, think and discuss, earning six UW credits in English at the end of the course. It’s a pretty tall order for people who have found more failures than success in school and life.

But the Odyssey Project is about more than a class and college credits. It’s about regaining a sense of possibility, says Auerbach, UW–Madison professor of English and director of the Odyssey Project.

“Sometimes we act as if poverty is a moral failure, as if there’s something wrong with your character if you lack money. That’s unfair. Low-income adults yearn for more but often have never been given a chance,” says Auerbach. “The humanities empower people to see their place in society and imagine a different life. I have seen lives transformed by new hope.”

Auerbach says there is no typical student, but most have stumbled in life. And some have fallen. Hard. Poverty, homelessness, teenage pregnancy, addictions, incarceration, learning disorders and abusive relationships have held their lives in place, paralyzed without hope or options. Most are parents, work at unskilled jobs and come from diverse backgrounds. They juggle the demands of a job, family and school.

Some 100 or so apply for the program each year, and Auerbach talks to each potential student. “I’m looking for a hunger for learning and a desire to take advantage of the opportunity,” says Auerbach.

Auerbach, Odyssey faculty members (Marshall Cook, Jean Feraca, Gene Phillips and Craig Werner), coordinator Diane Dennis, guest lecturers and students meet each week at the Harambee Center on South Park Street.

The center may be a mere mile and a half or so from the UW–Madison campus, but a college education seems unattainable to adults held motionless by hard times. Like Odysseus in Homer’s “Odyssey,” the students embark upon a journey into unfamiliar territory to places they never thought they could go and to do things they never thought were possible. To find their way: a dictionary.

Nativity Townsel, 31, is a member of this year’s class. Six months pregnant and with three children at home, she applied, determined to work through the challenges. A smothering relationship and other issues derailed her earlier plans for college. She says she gave her life over to her then-husband, at the expense of her own. She saw an Odyssey pamphlet at church and began to dream. “I really thought Emily wasn’t going to accept me. I was afraid the class was going to be too hard and I would fail,” says Townsel, who received her course completion certificate on May 12.

Like any college experience, it was hard. But Townsel was up to the challenge and especially enjoyed reading Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and William Blake.

“I didn’t think I’d like the reading. I used to fall asleep after reading for two minutes,” she laughs. “But I pressed through and my vocabulary and understanding really improved. I learned I can do the work. The hardest part was the time management, but it all fell into place.”

Like any parent, she wants to set a good example and she’s excited about her kids getting to see her graduate. Her ultimate goal is to become a pediatrics nurse and she plans on taking classes at Madison College. “All those ‘I cant’s’ are now ‘I did it,’” says Townsel.

Auerbach says the Odyssey program has one of the highest retention and graduation rates of programs of its kind in the country. About half her students continue their schooling. Many attend Madison College, one has an Edgewood degree and ten have been accepted at UW–Madison. Odyssey will see its second alumna receive a bachelor’s degree from UW–Madison this spring. (See sidebar.)

Graduation is more than a ceremony. It honors achievement realized and celebrates the proud promise of tomorrow. “One student told me our class helped her unwrap her gifts,” says Auerbach. “I feel so honored to help students start using their gifts to change not only themselves but also our world. They find a voice and a new sense of power.”

See more information on the Odyssey Project, its faculty and students, and how to contribute.