The UW-Madison’s Odyssey Project will celebrate the graduation of its 23rd class on Wednesday, April 29, 6 p.m. at the Great Hall of the UW-Madison Memorial Union.
The Odyssey Class of 2026 faced countless challenges, adversities, and obstacles to get to their graduation day, says longtime Odyssey Director Emily Auerbach, including addiction, incarceration, food insecurity, single parenthood, and more.
“We have two of the women in the class who gave birth this month, and they got all of their homework done,” Auerbach tells Madison365. “One of the students has a baby that is just a few days old, the other just a couple of weeks old. They made it through, and so did others with just incredible hardship.
“We have never before had two students in the class give birth during the month of graduation. So that is something definitely new. We had two other students, men in the class, who had babies born this year, as well,” she adds.
Wednesday night’s Odyssey Project graduation ceremony will celebrate students who have spent two semesters discussing challenging works of literature, history, philosophy, and art while cultivating their own voices through poetry and prose. Auerbach says this is the earliest graduation date they have planned for Odyssey in its 23-year history.
At the event, there will be remarks from Auerbach and a special guest speaker, incoming interim UW Chancellor Dr. Eric Wilcots.
“We are looking forward to hearing from Eric Wilcots, who will congratulate the students,” Auerbach says. “He will officially be the incoming chancellor around the middle of May. He has been a champion of the Odyssey Project for quite a while.”
“Odyssey is the Wisconsin Idea in action: ensuring that the teaching and scholarship of UW–Madison have an amazing impact on our community,” said Dr. Eric Wilcots in a statement. “Through their own writing, these students are allowing their voices to be heard. By studying literature, students discover that they are not alone. Suffering, joy, love, humor, tragedy are all universal experiences, and these great works illuminate the human condition.”
Also at the event, the “Friends of Odyssey Award” will be presented to Mary Rouse, former UW Dean of Students, and her son, Martin Rouse, Division of Continuing Studies (DCS) Associate Dean.
A highlight of the graduation ceremony will be hearing from the Odyssey graduates who completed two semesters of humanities courses and will graduate with six UW-Madison credits, jumpstarting their dreams of attaining a college degree and breaking cycles of generational poverty.
“There will be family and supporters on stage for the 29 students who are graduating, and then each one will come to the podium and share a minute of something they wrote in class,” Auerbach says.
Auerbach has seen a range of things in her 23 years leading the Odyssey Project, but she says this year has been especially difficult for many of the students in the program.
“I would say that we have an unprecedented global situation that puts a lot of stress and pressure on the students in our class, especially those who feel targeted as immigrants or who feel belittled by the erasure of Black history. We have some students who are really affected by the hard economic times that we’re in,” Auerbach says. “So, of all the 23 years that I’ve done the program, I think I feel these students have had to muster up more resilience, more strength, more hope in the face of darkness.”
The Odyssey Program has really grown over its 23 years, and there are now multiple Odyssey programs beyond the core Odyssey group that will be graduating on Wednesday night. Odyssey Junior extends literacy and enrichment to the next generation; Onward Odyssey supports Odyssey alumni on their continued journey; Odyssey Beyond Bars provides Odyssey courses to students in prison; and Odyssey Senior celebrates the stories of Odyssey elders through an enrichment program.
Odyssey Beyond Wars, which serves veterans with their transition from military to civilian life, ran for two years but is currently on hiatus for budgetary and staffing reasons.
Auerbach says they have already started planning the big celebration for the 25th anniversary of the Odyssey Project in two years.
But first things first. The celebration of the 23rd graduating class will be free and open to the public. Appetizers and refreshments will be provided following the ceremony, along with music and Bucky Badger. “My dad, who is 97, will be playing music at the event. The community is welcome to come,” Auerbach says. It’s a wonderful and inspiring event.”
Auerbach says she loves to see the Odyssey Project family continue to grow.
“We have become a big family over the years, and we have multiple generations from the same family, too,” Auerbach says. “One of the students graduating this year had a mother in the program some years back, and another one has a sister who went through the program. It’s definitely a family affair.
“It’s great seeing students from those early years. We have a student graduating from law school next month, and others who now have master’s degrees. So just seeing the transformation over two decades is astounding,” Auerbach adds.
