Welcome to the Odyssey Program!  “Odyssey” is a one-credit, first-semester class, consisting of one-hour, small-group discussions of an important text every Friday afternoon during the fall semester.  The Odyssey Program is intended to help students achieve the following objectives:

Our hope is that first‑semester freshmen will:

• become acquainted with university life;
• become acquainted with Catholic higher education, and UST in particular;
• begin to develop the skills that will facilitate their success at UST;
• develop an understanding of and appreciation for the university core curriculum;
• develop an appreciation of the different "ways of knowing" characteristic of each of the major disciplines and the methodology unique to a particular core discipline or area;
• acquire strategies to improve reading, writing, and research competencies;
• develop an understanding of the interrelationship across disciplines of the core curriculum; and
• develop an understanding of and appreciation for the relevance of the core curriculum in preparing students for effective living.

 II. What Will Be Expected of Students Each Week:

1. 25-35 pages of reading per week.
2. Completion of an on-line weekly reading quiz via Blackboard prior to class.
3. Attendance at weekly discussion sections.
4. Arrive at class with 3 possible questions for discussion.
5. A five-minute reflection paper at the end of each class.

III. List of Readings :

1. Josef Pieper, Leisure the Basis of Culture, tr. Gerard Malsbary (South Bend: St. Augustine’s Press, 1998).
2. Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book:  A Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972).
3. The Odyssey Reader (which will contain short selections from various sources, such as Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, Walker Percy’s Lost in the Cosmos, and Wendell Berry’s Home Economics).

As you can see from the “list of readings” above, and from the “calendar of sessions” below, the bulk of the semester will be dedicated to reading and discussing two major books: Josef Pieper’s Leisure, the Basis of Culture and Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren’s How to Read a Book. We are sending you a copy of both of these books by mail, along with a supremely useful study guide for each, so that you can get started on the reading this summer if you wish.   The study guides will give you an idea of the kinds of questions that will be covered on the quizzes, as well as the kinds of topics that might arise in the course of the discussion sessions. 

IV. Calendar of Sessions:

A)  Who Am I?  Where Am I From?  And Where Am I Going?: The Student’s Search for Meaning

1. Wed, Aug 20:  Dessert with Odyssey faculty members after dinner.
2. Thurs, Aug 21:  Movie discussion:  The Quarrel
3. Fri, Aug 22:  Discussion on two PBS documentaries:  People Like Us and The Merchants of Cool

* NB: There will be no on-line quizzes to take during the three Orientation sessions.  But participation at the discussion sessions is mandatory.  Faculty members will be taking attendance each week.  (Let’s be clear; taking Weekly