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| by Staff |
| October 03, 2012 |
MADISON — On Thursday, Oct. 4, the Madison community is invited to celebrate the ‘transformation’ of more than 250 lives of economically-challenged adults through the power of studying the humanities and arts in a free University of Wisconsin-Madison class offered by The Odyssey Project, which was established ten years ago.
The 10th anniversary festivities will be held 5-7 p.m. at the Chazen Art Museum on the UW-Madison campus. Participants will hear readings of original poetry and prose written by Odyssey students, watch theatrical and musical performances, enjoy refreshments, and watch an excerpt from a new Odyssey video that will be broadcast during a Badger sporting event this year.
Invited to the event will be the Odyssey ‘family,’ comprised of students from the past ten classes, their instructors, friends, and family members, as well as hundreds of community supporters and the general public. All will share in the participants’ joy of learning and their accomplishments.
The determined force behind the Odyssey Project is UW-Madison Professor Emily Auerbach, who credits her inspiration to the Clemente Course in the Humanities and to Berea College, which helped her parents escape poverty. Auerbach reports that 15 of the adults who have completed the free six-credit Odyssey humanities course have gone on to complete a two-year or four-year college degree and four have been accepted into graduate school.
She adds that these adults have overcome severe challenges such as homelessness, alcoholism, prison, and drug use.
“Discovering that they can perform successfully at the college level has given our students a new sense of power, confidence, and hope. Two-thirds of Odyssey Project graduates have continued on to take more courses at the post-secondary level,” Auerbach says.
While attending the two-semester course, students discuss Socrates and Thomas Jefferson, analyze the poetry of Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson, and explore the artistry of Shakespeare and Michelangelo. “This class helps the students gain skills in critical thinking, persuasive writing, and communication,” Auerbach explains.
At the event on Oct. 4, free copies of a beautifully illustrated 100-page booklet of student writings will be given out. Called Transformations: Ten Years of the UW Odyssey Project, the booklet showcases student talent through chapters such as Finding Plato’s Cave Today, Responding to Music, Admiring Art, Channeling Frederick Douglass, Becoming a Metaphor, Engaging with Literature, and Celebrating the Journey.
Generous donations from individuals, churches, organizations, and companies support the Odyssey Project along with UW-Madison Continuing Studies. Odyssey Project’s 10th anniversary celebration is supported by financial assistance from Harris Bank, University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation, DANE ARTS, and the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
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For information about the Odyssey Project, visit www.odyssey.wisc.edu.
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