Empowering Minds: Voices of The Odyssey Project/Proyecto Odisea

In the Odyssey/Odisea classroom, instructors and students alike know that students’ own life experiences are critical to learning. Instructor Lucy Biederman emphasizes how important this is: “[I am amazed by] the knowledge that people bring into this classroom. One of the most beautiful things to witness as an instructor is when one student changes another student's mind....[They are all] equipped to learn from each other rather than having the instructor be the central focus of the class.” The unique community Odyssey/Odisea cultivates inspires students to pursue new skills and interests – not alone, but together. 

The concept of “community” was prominent in our conversations with both Deb and Lucy. One of the strengths of Odyssey/Odisea, according to Deb, is “the diversity of students and where they're coming from and what their lives are like.” Similarly, Lucy celebrates “the groups of learners that each class creates.” As she explains, “there's space for all different kinds of people in this program... It is... transformative.” 

While Odyssey/Odisea takes place in different parts of the city in different languages (English and Spanish) with different instructors, there is a unified experience that we hear from all our students, alumni, and faculty – and that Illinois Humanities works hard to nourish. And that’s the sense that all of us are thinkers, writers, leaders, doers, and changemakers.