Odyssey Project Seeks To Solve Poverty

'Odyssey Project' Seeks To Solve Poverty
Program Offers Higher Education For Free
WISC-TV/Channel 3000 Posted: 7:56 pm CST December 21, 2009

MADISON, Wis. -- A University of Wisconsin program seeks to solve local poverty problems by offering those with past problems a chance at free higher education.

The program, known as the "Odyssey Project," is a free college humanities course for adults near the poverty level that is funded by UW grants and donations. Every year, 30 students go through the program and continue on to other area schools.

The project is already credited with changing the life of one local woman named Kegan Carter.

"We've all taken wrong turns in life, it's just what you allow yourself to do," Carter said. "You can't think, 'Just because this happened, I can't do it."

Carter said she pulled strength from her triumphs and defeats in order to become the first graduate of the Odyssey Project. After escaping from violence in Chicago, Carter said her life in Madison began with a setback.

"I thought it would be relatively easy to find an apartment, especially since I was working," Carter said.

But that wasn't the case, and the single mother ended up homeless, living in a shelter and hotel for months.

"It seemed like no one wanted to give me a chance," Carter said.

Things started to turn around when Carter got an apartment and an unexpected opportunity, she said.

"While I was at the library -- the South Madison library -- I saw a pamphlet," she said.

That pamphlet told her she could get a college education for free through the UW's Odyssey Project, which focuses on people who had endured hardships.

"We have students who have dealt with eviction, homelessness, teenage pregnancy, drug addiction, or just coming out of a family where no one thought they were college material," said Emily Auerbach, the program's director.

For seven years, Auerbach has been on a personal mission to provide education for all.

"I have a passion for seeing people have access to higher education, partly because my parents both came out of poverty through a school in Kentucky that was only for poor students and gave them a free education," Auerbach said.

Now, Auerbach points to Carter as living proof of the power of education. Carter's journey began at Madison Area Technical College and ended when she became the first student in the Odyssey Project to graduate from UW-Madison.

"I am so proud," Auerbach said. "I know how much work has gone into it and I know what an inspiration she'll be to our other students."

Carter said the experience was well worth it for her and for her kids.

"Seeing her graduating and how she came up from where she came up from, that just shows me that I can pretty much just do it," said Carter's son, Drake.

In addition to Carter, three other MATC students will be getting degrees in December, and another will be getting a degree from Edgewood College.

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