Joseph Connor ’16 J.D. was interested in education law and policy when he decided to study law at Notre Dame. Now, he is the founder and CEO of Odyssey, a technology company that helps families access funding for the K-12 education of their choice.
In just the past year, his company has distributed over $110 million to the parents of more than 67,000 students through the Iowa Students First and the Idaho Empowering Parents programs and is on track to launch another program in Missouri called Close the Gap.
The seeds for his career as an education entrepreneur were planted at Notre Dame, where he served as an Alliance for Catholic Education consultant while pursuing his law degree.
He credits his experiences at Notre Dame for helping him acquire the skills he needed to master complex state and federal education laws and regulations and to clearly explain this detailed information to schools, parents, and sometimes even the state regulators themselves.
“I am incredibly grateful for my time at Notre Dame Law School,” Joseph said.
In Iowa, Odyssey flawlessly processed more than 29,000 applications in its first month of operation.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that the future success of parental choice in the United States is in the hands of Joe and other entrepreneurs like him. He truly is a different kind of lawyer,” said Nicole Stelle Garnett, Joseph’s mentor at Notre Dame and nationally recognized expert in education law.
Members of the Order of St. Thomas More invest in the next generation of Notre Dame lawyers like Joseph, who advance the mission with exceptional ability and compassion for others.