Graduation address by Katya Nuques, Director of Education for the Little Village Community Development Corporation

CHICAGO – On Sunday June 10 at 2:30 p.m. at the National Museum of Mexican Art (1852 West 19th Street) the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) will celebrate the graduation of The Odyssey Project ‘s Spanish Language class of 2007.

Fundamentos de Educación en Humanidades is part of the Illinois Humanities Council’s The Odyssey Project and offered in partnership with the University of Chicago and the Bard College Clemente Course. This course serves native Spanish speakers and is offered at Gads Hill Center in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Students take classes in literature, philosophy, Mexican history, and writing. All reading assignments are in Spanish, as is class discussion. Classes meet twice a week from January to June.

Tuition is free and all books are provided free of charge. Bard College grants a certificate of achievement to any student who completes the course and four transferable credit hours to those who complete it at a high level.

Katya Nuques, Director of Education for the Little Village Community Development Corporation, will give this year’s graduation address. In addition to Nuques, The Odyssey Project graduates will select a student speaker to address the graduation audience.

Fundamentos de Educación en Humanidades is part of the Illinois Humanities Council’s The Odyssey Project. Founded on the premise that engagement with the humanities can offer a way out of poverty, The Odyssey Project offers instruction to course participants in humanistic disciplines. The Odyssey Project is in its sixth year here in Chicago. Students explore masterpieces in literature, art history, moral philosophy, and United States history. Writing instruction is also integral to the coursework. The Bard Clemente Course in the Humanities (of which The Odyssey Project is a part) is in its 10th year, with more than 20 sites operating in the United States. Syllabi and reading lists at all sites are roughly equivalent to those a student might encounter in a first-year humanities survey course at a first-rate university. The Spanish Language Odyssey Project began in Chicago in 2003, and Bard College hopes to replicate the course in other locations.

For more information about The Odyssey Project, or to request an application, please call 312.422.5580, email ihc@prairie.org, or visit www.prairie.org and click on "The Odyssey Project" under "Educational Programs and Grants."

The Illinois Humanities Council is an educational organization dedicated to fostering a culture in which the humanities are a vital part of the lives of individuals and communities. Through its programs and grants, the IHC promotes greater understanding of, appreciation for, and involvement in the humanities by all Illinoisans, regardless of their economic resources, cultural background, or geographic location. Organized as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1973, the IHC is now a private nonprofit (501 [c] 3) organization that is funded by contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations; by the Illinois General Assembly; and by the NEH.

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