Ezi Adesi creates his own educational culture as new director of Omega School

Six months into his new job as director of Omega School, a long-standing non-profit on Madison’s South Side that has helped thousands of Dane County students earn their GED or high school equivalency diploma (HSED) over the years, Ezi Adesi is in his groove.

“I’m loving it so far … couldn’t have gotten off to a better start, honestly. The student traffic has been really good throughout the year since enrollment in January,” Adesi tells Madison365 in an interview from his Omega School office on Badger Rd. “We have a lot of new students along with a lot of returning students. We are getting people to come back and many of them are realizing how important this is. So that’s great.

“We have an amazing staff here who do great work and a lot of good support from the team. Oscar [Mireles] has been an amazing mentor to me. I’ve known him since 2008.”

Born and raised in Beloit, Adesi earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a master’s degree in higher education administration from American Public University. Adesi has experience working for both Literacy Network and Omega School. His first job out of college was as an instructor at Omega School in 2008. Five years later, he became the director of adult basic education at Literacy Network, where he oversaw one-on-one tutoring programs throughout Madison.

Adesi has also been an instructor and case manager with the Employment and Training Association and the Department of Corrections, dean of students at The Lincoln Academy, and a director and advisor at Lakeland University outside of Sheboygan.

Before Adesi took the helm, Oscar Mireles was very well-known in Madison and beyond as the Omega School executive director/principal of 30 years, his legendary office (now Adesi’s office) was full of plaques, pictures of Omega students, sports memorabilia and more that people had come to know and love. Has anybody come into the office looking for Oscar since he retired?

“At the beginning, it did happen a couple of times,” laughs Adesi, who has known Mireles since 2008 when he took his first job out of college at Omega School. “Not as many times as I thought it would happen.”

Mireles, who is keeping busy in retirement heading up Latinos Organizing for Understanding and Development (LOUD), tells Madison365 that Adesi was “the perfect choice” to lead Omega School in the next chapter, which includes a new partnership with Literacy Network.

“Ezi’s years at Omega School as a GED instructor gave him a great vantage point to see both the challenges and opportunities each student brings to the table,” Mireles says. “His book on the topic of best practice for working with community members in adult education was excellent and we shared many of the same insights.

“Now, after six months of retirement focusing on Latino arts, I am happy that the transition has gone smoothly,” Mireles adds.

Adesi says that he loves creating his own educational culture at Omega.

“How do you create an environment and a culture where students can learn and focus for the time that they are there, and a culture where the teaching staff loves to come and work every day? I love doing that,” he says. “That’s what gets me excited and keeps me coming back every day and giving 100 percent. 

“My job involves a lot of follow-ups with students. It’s mentoring and it’s guidance. I love being student-facing,” Adesi continues. “It’s something that comes naturally to me. It’s actually my favorite part of the job.”

Omega School officially became a program of Literacy Network on Jan. 1, 2025. Adesi says that so far, the merger has been “a great fit.”

“So what it does, essentially, is it gives students more options. Once connected with those options, it makes transitioning easier,” Adesi says. “It’s a very straight path from Literacy Network programs to Omega School programs, or from an Omega program to a Literacy Network program. We’re serving a very similar population, just meeting them at different levels. And that’s what the merger does. It allows us to meet our students even more where they are. 

“We have an amazing partnership with Madison College. So, a student could easily transition from any of the Literacy Networks programs, including Omega, over to Madison College to further their career or further their occupational or educational goals,” Adesi adds. “So it all just works. It’s just working out. We are still early in the merger, so we’re still in the learning phase, figuring things out as we go. But so far, so good.”

On June 21, Omega School hosted its first graduation under the Literacy Network umbrella and the first with Adesi leading Omega School, continuing the 50-year tradition of celebrating students who obtain their GED or HSED.

 “Graduation was amazing. It was empowering for our students,” Adesi says. “It was a good experience all around. We had a great graduating class. The graduation went smoothly. 

“The families showed up at the graduation. That’s one of my favorite parts of graduation, seeing the supporting cast at graduation and seeing the family’s pride and seeing the children, and seeing old alumni return to speak at the event,” he adds. “Graduation is the beginning of a whole new journey.”

Ezi Adesi addresses graduates during Omega’s first graduation ceremony as a part of Literacy Network.

Approximately 150 people, including students and their families and friends, along with Literacy Network staff, came together to celebrate the students’ journeys and successes.

“You have students at so many different stages in life, and they are experiencing so many different things that make it hard to focus on education … it makes it hard to make it to class. So the students are juggling a lot,” Adesi says.

“So my job is to keep them motivated, keep them connected, make sure that I’m always in conversations and interactions, reminding them of the importance and value of their high school equivalency,” he adds. “If that means phone call after phone call, text message after text message, postcard after postcard, email after email … that’s what we do.” 

In its more than 50 years, Omega School has had many graduates go on to do amazing things and become an important part of the fabric of the greater Madison community. Adesi says he makes sure his students know about those success stories and about the Omega family that continues to grow and the lifelong support and love they will receive.

“I think another big part of students knowing that they have possibilities is making sure that that whole collaboration piece is solid …  making sure that Omega is a collaborator with other caring and dedicated educational and occupational service providers,” Adesi says. “For example, Madison College has been a true partner for us all of these years.  

“Students need to be able to see what that next step is. I think a lot of times it’s hard to go to the next step if you can’t really visualize and see it,” he continues. “But through partnership, through collaboration, it makes it easier for our students to see that next thing and to feel what that next thing is going to be like for them.”

A big goal for Adesi will be to see more of his students transition to higher education. 

“That’s going to be a push. I want to see students go from Omega School to college, to the university. They have the skills. They have the motivation. They have the will,” Adesi says. “We need to make those connections a bit stronger with some of the surrounding institutions. We also have to address the college costs: so how do we navigate the financial aspect of transitioning students? We’ll figure that out, but right now it is all about getting the interest from the students and motivating them to that next step. 

“Our students, when they graduate, are the next tier of leaders and the next tier of workers in our city. They are ready to contribute to society. There’s a lot of great talent here. These students are intelligent. They just needed an opportunity to get over that hump. Once they graduate, they can pretty much do anything. It would be very beneficial for the community to continue to support these students on their journeys.”

On top of opening up higher education pathways for his students, Adesi wants to increase student enrollment and focus on staying connected to Omega alumni. “Just because you graduate from Omega, it doesn’t mean that Omega is no longer a place for you,” he says. “You can come back here anytime and get support and guidance and resources. You are part of the legacy and tradition of Omega now.”

Adesi adds that in order for him to be successful at his job, it will be important for him to continue to garner support from the greater Madison community, too, and continue to sustain and develop relationships.

“I want to see more people connect to the work that we do, realize how important it is, and support in one of the many ways that you can,” Adesi says. “People can be generous in so many different ways. I’ve never seen volunteerism like I have until I came to Madison. Madison does it well. 

“I think it’s important to be spreading the word about what we do, and just increasing the support would be great … connecting people with the cause.”

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