The final session allows students to craft their own vision for America's future, the results of which are shared with elected officials on local and state levels. The Odyssey Project makes contemplation, the necessary precursor to action, possible. Students take classes in moral philosophy, literature, art history, American history, and writing and critical thinking. The most respected faculty from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and other Chicago colleges teach in The Odyssey Project. Classes are rooted in the classics and are taught as Socrates, thought best, through discussion not lectures.
Students also receive close and personal attention with their writing assignments.
Courses run from September through April at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning in Chicago s North Lawndale and Little Village communities. On-site childcare, books, transportation costs, and tutoring are provided for free. Students who satisfactorily complete the course receive six transferable units of credit from Bard College, a fully accredited, competitive, Liberal Arts College in New York. The Illinois Humanities Council supports the efforts of young people in developing and producing humanities projects for themselves, other youth, and their communities. Whether researching the racial, cultural, and economic shift in their neighborhood or considering the connection between hip hop and religion, young people take the lead in learning more about their immediate worlds and the issues that immediately impact their lives.