Writing and the Odyssey Project with Jennifer Fandel and Kevin Mullen

Since 2003, the UW Odyssey Project has been developing and refining innovative approaches to engaging low-income adult students from marginalized communities through free, credit-bearing, jumpstart humanities courses. These courses, now also in four prisons across the state, revolve around writing: students encounter a wide range of writing prompts (from self-reflective essays and research editorials to storytelling assignments and blues lyrics), the publication and circulation of student writing through the Odyssey Oracle, and one-on-one writing support with a team of tutors that students can rely on as they try their first college class.

This talk will explore how these approaches to writing can help to foster a stronger sense of voice, self-efficacy, community, and passion for life-long learning for adults who have often been told in the past that they are not “college material.”