The award-winning UW-Madison Odyssey Project is graduating its 22nd cohort tonight during a ceremony from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Great Hall in the Memorial Union on the UW-Madison campus.
The 2025 graduation is free and open to the public and will be livestreamed as well as in person. It will feature a speech by Dr. Rev. Alex Gee, the founder of the Center For Black Excellence and Culture, live music, and an appearance by Bucky Badger.
(Photo by Shalicia Johnson)
The Odyssey Project began in 2003 and provides educational opportunities to people who have experienced challenges like homelessness and incarceration. Odyssey’s programming is designed to help students get their foot in the door of higher education, particularly populations who either never believed they would have a chance at earning a college degree or were flat out told they aren’t college material.
“We have students who were homeless who now have their master’s degree,” said Emily Auerbach, the project’s co-founder. “The goal is to help families break a cycle of generational poverty.”
While Odyssey has an excellent graduation rate, Auerbach is particularly proud of the fact that all 30 of the students who entered the program at the beginning of the year are graduating.
“This year’s class has gone through incredible adversity and challenges,” she said. “There has been loss of loved ones, COVID, other illnesses, surgeries, car accidents. So many challenges that threatened graduation.”
Each of the graduates will step to the podium and read something they wrote during the two-semester program.
“These are students who are facing incredible odds, but they were determined they were going to make it through,” Auerbach said.
The graduates will receive six jump-start credits in humanities from UW-Madison, and Odyssey staff will continue helping them attain degrees even after graduation.
“Odyssey now has students who are in law school, applying for medical school, dental school and graduate school,” Auerbach said.
According to Auerbach, one graduate was told by a high school counselor that she would never be college material.
“She is now not only an Odyssey graduate, but she graduated from Madison College with honors and is at UW-Madison majoring in Chinese and creative writing,” Auerbach said.
Another graduate was part of Odyssey’s Beyond Bars program at Oakhill Correctional Institute, and has now been transformed into a great student. Another student was released from the hospital following a gallbladder surgery and came to class against doctor’s orders.
Because of its success and the tremendous impact on students who go through the program, the Odyssey Project has become multi-generational. Auerbach says they work with young people who are the grandchildren of members of Odyssey’s original cohort.
“If you give one family member an opportunity, it changes the destiny of that entire family and community,” Auerbach said.
Odyssey has also been able to expand to serve more communities. It serves youths and older adults through the respective Odyssey Junior and Senior programs; Odyssey Beyond Bars helps prisoners achieve higher education in four Wisconsin prisons; Odyssey Beyond Wars gives opportunities to veterans; and Odyssey Onward helps program alumni continue earning UW credits.
Odyssey relies on robust fundraising and community donations to continue its programming. But in the current political climate, Auerbach worries that items like the Odyssey Project are under fire, if not financially, certainly politically.
“I’ve never seen a climate like we’re in right now where all the values I have seem under assault,” Auerbach said. “But I think the track record of the Odyssey Project for transforming lives speaks for itself. Come to our graduation to support the students and get a sense of the gifts they have.”
For more details about tonight’s Odyssey graduation ceremony, click here.
