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Community & Economic Development

Afghan Evacuee Programming Project

Student Leaders: Ella Sobhani (ess3) & Mihr Mehrzad (mm59)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Paula Consolini

We are a group of CS students seeking to teach programming classes to Afghan evacuees in the New England region.

Alhambra Consulting Group

Student Leaders: Nick Langel (ntl1) & Maddy Sullivan (mjs12)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Paula Consolini

Alhambra Consulting Group is Williams College’s pro bono consulting group. Alhambra aims to foster regional economic development in Berkshire County and the surrounding region by providing advisory services to local businesses, non-profits, and public sector groups operating in geographic proximity to the County. Alhambra’s primary services include conducting academic and business research, collecting and analyzing data, and developing strategies and proposals based on research insights to support our clients’ objectives. Alhambra’s paramount mission is to leverage the resources of Williams College to engage with the regional issues of Berkshire County and foster long-term growth and change for our clients and our community.

Berkshire Doula Project

Student Leaders: Gates Tenerowicz (glt1) & Maddie Moore (mtm4)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Laini Sporbert

Berkshire Doula Project is a student collective that advocates for reproductive rights on campus. We spread reproductive health awareness through our campus-wide events: Menstruation and Masturbation Celebration, as well as holding an IUD/abortion doula training each semester.

Berkshire Food Project

The Berkshire Food Project (BFP) was started by Williams College students in 1987. They recognized that there had been a shift in the region from a industrial to a service economy, resulting in unemployment and under-employment. Many young people left the North Adams area in search of jobs, leaving older family members in the community who lacked the job skills which emerging technological firms would require.

The Berkshire Food Project seeks to alleviate hunger, food insecurity, and social isolation by serving healthy, no cost meals and connecting people to other resources, all in a dignified and respectful manner. We seek to alleviate need that has grown even in periods of economic expansion nationally. We seek to provide a forum to facilitate unselfconscious interaction among disparate segments of the population. And we seek to provide information helpful to our customers. We invite relevant social service agencies and experts to address lunch gatherings on such varied issues as tenants’ rights, voting registration, programs for the elderly, public assistance, child and health care, Social Security, and nutrition. We also seek to share information about food insecurity with our community to foster a greater understanding of the issues in our community and the barriers that can prevent people from accessing resources.

Volunteers join the staff of the BFP and help prepare, serve and enjoy lunch with members of the community. Help is appreciated between 8:30am-2:00pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There are also opportunities for groups to volunteer in the evening or on weekends for special projects. Students can either fill out the online application or contact BFP directly.

First Congregational Church
134 Main Street
PO Box 651
North Adams, MA 01247
413-664-7378
berkshirefoodproject.org
[email protected]

Berkshire Immigrant Center

The mission of the Berkshire Immigrant Center is to advocate for the rights of all immigrants by helping them navigate the complex U.S. immigration system with affordable legal services, local resources, and education.

Berkshire Immigrant Center provides its clients with tools to help them overcome financial and cultural barriers, with the goals of strengthening civic engagement and creating equal opportunity for all. Berkshire Immigrant Center supports changes to systems which are unjust to immigrants, and supports state and national immigration advocacy efforts.

The Center assists more than 700 individuals annually from more than 60 countries in several languages. Our Case Workers are accredited by the Department of Justice to represent clients with the US Citizen and Immigration Services and give legal advice to those seeking immigration benefits in the US and education on civil rights.

67 East Street
Pittsfield, MA 01201
413-445-4881
www.berkshireic.org
[email protected]

Berkshire Translation Project

Student Leader: Chen Chen Huang (ch15) & Catherine Chen (cc22)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Luana Maroja

The Berkshire Translation Project seeks to provide a free translation service of simple documents (mostly of legal nature) for the immigrant community, in order to lower the financial barriers to immigration. However, with translation also comes community, connection, and responsibility. Therefore, the translation project will also provide opportunity for students of various cultural and linguistic backgrounds to use their abilities to help the immigrant community, while practicing and improving their language skills, and learning about the immigration system of the United States.

Black STEM Association

Student Leaders: Ellie Tounkara (ert4) & Bishoy (Shoy) Yacoub (by1)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Pamela Harris

The Black STEM Student Association (BSTEM) aims to create a safe and supportive space in which Black students are encouraged to continue their studies in STEM+ fields, and can freely speak of their experiences in these fields. This support system for underserved groups in STEM is essential to helping support these students interested in the sciences and combat the effects of the discrimination that they may experience while navigating STEM courses during their time at Williams College.

Black Student Union

Student Leaders: Isha Kamara (ik4) & Shannon Billups (smb12)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Bilal Ansari

The Williams Black Student Union shall provide a local mechanism through which Black-identifying and allied students can find academic, emotional, and social support by providing: 1) a forum in which all students can articulate concerns regarding not only the curriculum and the general administration of the College, but also concerns regarding specific events and issues. 2) A network beyond Williams that will enable Black students/students of African ancestry to achieve in the classroom, professionally and socially. 3) Funds and a space for academic, cultural, political and social events relevant to the Black Diaspora and African ancestry at Williams.

Chinese American Students Organization

Student Leaders: Rachel Chai (rhc1) & Frances Leung (fl5)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Aly Corey

The Chinese American Student Organization strives to bring to the Williams College campus a safe space for students of all identities to build community around the celebration of Chinese/Chinese American culture. CASO provides a fun and welcoming environment for members to learn more about Chinese customs, traditions, and holidays such as Lunar New Year, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, and the Lantern Festival. CASO hopes to amplify the presence of Chinese/Chinese American culture on campus, which is especially important at a predominantly white institution in the Berkshires where Asian students may lose touch with their heritage after a prolonged period away from home. CASO also facilitates community-building events that allow for Asian-identifying students to gather and meet people who come from both similar and different backgrounds. CASO aims to help its members establish lifelong bonds with one another, whether that be in the form of friendships or mentorships.

Circle of Women

Student Leaders: Jaeeun Lee (jl35) & Jennifer Sarmiento (jrs14)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Kris Hoey

Circle of Women (CoW) is a national nonprofit organization–run completely by students–that provides the necessary resources to girls around the world who are pursuing an education. As such, our focus is primarily abroad. We partner up with local groups to implement construction projects and fundraise to make such projects possible.

Website

CLiA Community Outreach Summer Fellowship

This paid summer program trains a small team of Williams students to help build better community service and experiential learning opportunities at Williams.  The selected rising Sophomores and Juniors are initially oriented to the Berkshires and trained in key skill areas before spending the balance of their time immersed and leading others in community engagement work.  This 8-week, 35-hour/week position reports to the CLiA Director.

Additional Information & Application:

learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/community-outreach-summer-fellowship

 

Coalition for Immigrant Student Advancement

Student Leaders: Abed Togas (art6) & Estefany Lopez-Velazquez (el11)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: D. Clinton Williams

CISA aims to achieve administrative progress and create a campus consciousness around immigrant issues. We hope to improve college policies to better address the needs of immigrant and mixed-status family students. We also want to foster a richer campus dialogue and give a voice to these stories.

Dinnertime

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Emmie Hine ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Paula Consolini
Meeting Time/Place: Thursday evenings in Paresky

Once a month, Dinnertime gathers and cooks dinner together for anyone who wants to come. Every dinner has a theme (past themes include Terrific Tubers, Pi Day, and Green Foods) and is vegetarian. Everyone is welcome to come cook, eat, and chat!

Facebook Page

Divest Williams

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Isabelle Furman ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Shanti Singham
Meeting Time/Place: Wednesdays 9 PM in Zilkha Center

Divest Williams seeks to build and foster a movement around divestment of the college’s endowment from fossil fuels; in this work, we aim also to undermine the entire extractive economy. Through this work, we strive to educate the community and challenge people to think more deeply about both their own and Williams’s place in social movements. We hope to develop a deeper understanding of systems of power and oppression and the points at which these systems are vulnerable. We understand the fight for climate justice to be inextricably linked to the fight for racial justice, economic justice, LGBTQIA justice; to the fight to end colonialism and imperialism and dismantle the patriarchy; to end ableism, transphobia, heterosexism, and all other forms of oppression. Therefore Divest Williams stands with all other groups fighting for social justice and climate justice on campus and beyond.

Website

EOS (Educational Opportunities for Success) Mentoring

This student-run program provides mentoring support for under-resourced high school students in the Pittsfield Public School District’s alternative learning facility. The mission of the program, established in 2017, is to build relationships with high school students whose voices are often ignored and whose feelings are frequently invalidated. Mentors strive to serve as consistent, positive role models who listen and show interest in these teenagers. In addition to mentoring, EOS promotes and conducts trauma-informed trainings with the goal of equipping local educators, mentors, resource officers, and student workers with the knowledge and strategies to more effectively serve and support students who have been affected by trauma. To apply or for more information, contact Omar Ahmad ’23 ([email protected]) or Tiffany Park ’23 ([email protected]).

EphVotes

Student Leaders: Jesse Schumann (jhs2) & Emily Du (ewd2)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Paula Consolini

EphVotes is Williams College’s first-ever voter outreach organization. Our mission is to promote voter registration, turnout, and civic engagement on campus. By bringing together students, faculty, and staff in a nonpartisan manner, EphVotes hopes to increase campus registration and voting rates and make it as easy as possible for every Eph to vote. Whether someone is an experienced community organizer or new to the concept, we welcome everyone into our big tent.

fEMPOWER

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Elizabeth Webber
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Sarah Raymond
Meeting Time/Place: Williamstown Elementary School

We hope to teach young girls about nutrition, teamwork and the negative and unrealistic expectations of women’s bodies in the media. We found a lot of success doing this last year, and I hope to continue the growth of this program. Our goal is to continue to inform a younger generation of girls through hands-on lessons and team-centered training. This program will end with a 5K road race that all of the girls will have trained for over the course of ~6 weeks. We want to show young girls that with some hard work and focus, they are all capable of reaching their goals.

Frosh Council

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Mike Ludwig ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Ellen Rogeau
Meeting Time/Place: Weekly in Hopkins Hall

Frosh Council is a student-elected committee that meets weekly and plans events and functions for First Years. For instance, we held Frosh Formal this past January and designed and sold class apparel.

Give It Up!

Students collect clothing, books, & other items from fellow students at year’s end. Donations of appliances, household goods and clothing are sold in the annual Giant Tag Sale at First Congregational Church and the ABC (A Better Community) Clothing Sale in September. Proceeds from these sales typically exceed $50,000 and benefit local charitable organizations and initiatives such as the Barrington Stage Company Playwright Mentoring Program, Berkshire Immigrant Center, Community Legal Aid, Elizabeth Freeman Center, Friendship Center Food Pantry, Louison House, Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, Northern Berkshire YMCA and ROOTS Teen Center. Donated food, personal care products and cleaning supplies are brought to the Williamstown Food Pantry.

Donated books are collected and organized at St. John’s Episcopal Church, then bought back by the Williams Bookstore or shipped to Better World Books. Proceeds from the sale of donated books benefit Nyanam Widows Rising, a project founded by Williams students to support widows in Kenya in reaching their goals through a focus on personal development, social change, and justice. Books that cannot be sold are recycled or repurposed by Better World Books, and as of the end of the 2021 campaign, have resulted in the following environmental impact metrics:

  • Over 23,000 books (~32,000 lbs)
  • Nearly 400 trees
  • Over 50,000 lbs of methane and greenhouse gas
  • Over 235,000 gallons of water
  • 51 cubic yards of landfill space
  • Over 75,000 kWh of electricity

Additional Information & Opportunities:

learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/give-it-up

Grassroots Advocacy and Labor Alliance

Student Leaders: Levi Hughes (nmh3) & Zephie Gollin (zcg1)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Jean Grant

The purpose of GALA is to create student engagement in matters concerning, labor, class, and unions under a nonpartisan affiliation. One of the central goals of GALA is to educate students on how to unionize, protect themselves from exploitation in the workplace via policy and resources, and organize not only themselves but also their local communities in the common interests of workers. Since local communities strengthen unions and unions help to energize communities in a mutually beneficial relationship, GALA hopes to generate student involvement in the local community to help revitalize parts of the labor movement through understanding how communities may be impacted by matters concerning, employment, labor, and workplace discrimination.

Great Ideas Committee

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Luke Baumann ([email protected])
Meeting Time/Place: College Council Suite, time according to members’ schedule

The Great Ideas Committee solicits ideas from the community to improve student life at Williams. These ideas can be conveniences (such as installing water fountains or buying chargers for the library), policy changes, improved communication systems, or anything else, though the scope of the projects is generally smaller than the larger policy questions debated by College Council or faculty committees. We draw from the CC Projects fund.

Website

Habitat for Humanity

This group is currently inactive.

2013-2014 Group Head: Ivan Badinski, [email protected]

Williams Habitat organizes bi-weekly trips to Habitat for Humanity project sites in the Berkshires. Student volunteers provide help with the construction of low-income housing for residents of the area. Given the general lack of affordable housing in the surrounding region and the severe shortage of volunteer labor for these sites, the help of Williams students is essential in improving the lives of Berkshires residents.  Aside from enriching our community on campus, we volunteer our Saturday mornings from 9am-12pm to help our community neighbors build a home for a deserving person in our community.  Participation is welcome on any Saturday that you are available with or without a weekly commitment.  For more information on our current project and what to wear when volunteering, please visit the Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity Build Update page at www.northberkshirehabitat.org/buildupdates.html.

Hats for the Homeless

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Jane Tekin
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Tracy Finnegan
Meeting Time/Place: TBD

Hats for the Homeless is an organization in which students use fiber arts to engage with the Berkshires. We knit and crochet hats, scarves, and other warm gear for homeless shelters in local communities in an effort to encourage engagement with them.

Higher Ground Inc.

Higher Ground Inc., is a local non-profit in Williamstown which looks after the survivors and flood victims of Tropical Storm Irene, caring for their daily mental and spiritual well being with a professional counselor. Higher Ground also advocates and helps to bring about disaster replacement housing for the seniors, low income individuals and families of The Spruces who have been displaced by the storm. Students have created a website, called families for relocation, joined the board of directors, maintained a newsletter, interviewed residents and created a photo journal which was turned into a book documenting the storm.

Hoosic River Revival Summer Internship

The Hoosic River Revival (HRR) is looking for students to conduct research and assist with public programs, and help produce a short film.  The HRR is a community-based, nonprofit organization with a mission to reconnect the North Adams community to a clean, beautiful, and safe Hoosic River and to enhance the river’s recreational, cultural and economic vitality. For complete details, visit learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/hoosic-river-revival-summer-internship/.

Kinetic

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Zachary Brand
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Jessica Bernheim

The purpose of Kinetic is to cultivate a social innovation incubator committed to designing and implementing creative, non-political, sustainable, scalable solutions to pressing social issues in the Berkshire region. Kinetic teams, which are comprised of 4-8 Kinetic members, work on a particular issue in three distinct phases: research, design, and implementation. Kinetic members work to understand the entire landscape of an issue and to discover gaps where they can intervene and create systemic change.

Kinetic Website

Lehman Community Engagement

Student Leaders: Hannah Bae (hb2)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Ash Bell (ab35)

Lehman serves to promote, foster, and maintain a spirit of service on campus by organizing and supporting many different community-oriented service projects. Our biggest projects are our Fall and Spring Great Days of Service which engage the wider campus in many projects. We also host other smaller ongoing and pop-up projects including Winter Study Service Week, meal and clothing donations drives, and volunteering at local schools, senior homes, homeless shelters, hospitals, and farms.

Manos Unidas Multicultural Educational Cooperative

A multicultural community empowerment organization that strives to uplift all of the Latino, immigrant and minority members of our community through a sustained exchange of shared resources, participatory education and living arts. Manos Unidas seeks not only to provide the opportunity for empowerment but also foster the creation of a diverse culture of community that hones our unique strengths by crossing real and artificial boundaries set up by class, race, language, culture and geography. Manos Unidas welcomes help with its outreach work in the community such as a) creating opportunities for community dialogue (such as a “Know Your Rights” Forum), b) helping with program start-up and continuation (e.g., Bilingual Radio Program), c) planning community events such as mural projects, Earth Charter Summit Day, Immigrant Month Conference, etc.

413-841-0298
manos-unidas.wixsite.com/manos-unidas-
www.facebook.com/manosunidascooperative
[email protected]
Contact: Annaelisa Vanegas-Farrara, Executive Director

Mohawk Forest Mentoring Program

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Julia Yarak ’18 ([email protected])

Faculty/Staff Adviser: Paula Consolini

Meeting Time/Place: Monday-Friday 3-5 PM

The Mohawk Forest program takes Williams students most weekday afternoons (3-5pm) to Mohawk Forest, an affordable housing community in North Adams. At the Mohawk Forest Community Center, we help children on their homework, play games, make crafts, and serve as mentors for the kids. It is a great opportunity to get out of the “purple bubble” and interact with children and teens in the community who really benefit from having positive role models in their lives.  For more information, contact the student leaders or the Center for Learning in Action at [email protected].

Partners in Health/Engage

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Adam Calogeras ([email protected]), Isabel Hanson ([email protected]), Elizabeth Gootkind ([email protected]), Miriam Semmar ([email protected]), Emily Shea ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Tara Watson ([email protected])
Meeting Time/Place: Biweekly Sundays, Griffin

The Williams College PIH: Engage community is one of 100+ grassroots PIH:Engage groups around the country that work to support Partners In Health, an internationally health charity focused primarily on building health infrastructure. The Williams College PIH: Engage community thus raises money for PIH, educates its members and the student body at large about public health-related issues, and advocates government officials on behalf of PIH. Leadership attends a Boston training institute in August.

Period. at Williams College

Student Leaders: Junhee Lee (jl33) & Sabiha Imran (si3)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Cynthia Holland

Period. at Williams College is a club dedicated to working towards menstrual equity by reducing period poverty and stigma in the community through service, education, and advocacy. We plan to hold various types of events to raise awareness regarding period poverty and increase accessibility to period products both on campus and in underserved public spaces in the community. We also plan to host educational events and workshops in the community to reduce period stigma.

QuestBridge Scholars Network

This group is currently inactive. For information for QuestBridge-affiliated students, please visit the Williams Admissions website.

Student Leaders: Onyeka Obi
Faculty/Staff Adviser: April Ruiz
Meeting Time/Place: Hollander 101

The primary purpose of the Williams QuestBridge Scholars Network is to provide a coherent support system for entering and continuing QuestBridge-affiliated Scholars at Williams College. However, while the Williams QSN functions as a place of support for low-income and first-generation students, many of its services benefit students from all backgrounds; all students are welcome to participate in the QSN’s events. Through the Williams QSN, students have an opportunity to meet others with similar life experiences through frequent social events and gatherings. With an emphasis on service, community building, and student mentorship, the QSN strives to continue our greater organization’s goal of seeing disadvantaged students thrive and give back.

Rotaract

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: William Duke ([email protected]), Kevin Eagan ([email protected]), David Burt ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Anne Skinner ([email protected])
Meeting Time/Place: Weekly, Paresky 112

Williams Rotaract is a club dedicated to fundraising for local and international service causes. We follow the international Rotaract club structure and are sponsored by the Williamstown Rotary club, holding weekly meetings on campus. Beyond fundraising for local and international causes, which in the past have included purchasing water filters for a village in Cambodia and laptops for a school in Mexico, we work to facilitate community service projects for our members within the community.

Senior Technology Tutoring

Student Leaders: Monika Bhaskar (mab13) & Abigail Vieira (aev3)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Ash Bell

Senior Technology Tutoring is an intergenerational program that brings seniors and college students together, all the while helping bridge the technology gap that can exist between generations. Each week after classes, a group of students will spend about an hour with seniors. Each student tutor will work one-on-one with a senior. In this hour, students will assist seniors with navigating the various features of their own technology devices such as helping them simply set up their Home Screen or applying for a job at the local grocery store. This program will not only allow seniors to gain confidence with their technology, but also create an intergenerational community between students and seniors.

Sentinels Summer Public Policy Research Fellowship

This U.S. public policy research program supports student research projects focused on contemporary issues in U.S. economic, social, and/or environmental policy, including but not limited to community and regional development, regulation, inequality, and/or processes and powers of the American Government at any level.  Sentinels Fellows are awarded research funding based primarily upon their written project proposal.

Additional Information & Application:

https://learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/sentinels-summer-research-fellowship/

Student Veterans Association

This group is inactive as of the 2022-23 academic year.

Student Leaders: Brandon Hashemi (bah4) & Joseph Grillo (jag20)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Tamanika Steward

The purposes of the Student Veterans Association (SVA) are thus:

  • Provide academic and professional outreach for prospective and current student veterans.
  • Connect members with on-campus resources, generate awareness of veterans on campus, develop a supportive community, and serve as a voice for veterans on campus.
  • Serve as a resource for non-veteran students and the community at large for those who are interested in pursuing military service.
  • It is also the purpose of this organization to abide by the Code of Student Conduct and to uphold the educational mission of Williams College.

thinkFOOD

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Nicholas Gardner ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Mike Evans
Meeting Time/Place: Tuesdays 8 PM in Zilkha Center

At Williams, members of thinkFOOD work in student groups and dining committees to make the food Williams eats more environmentally and socially sustainable. We’ve worked with our primary food purveyors and worked to write Williams Dining’s sustainable and responsible purchasing expectations for those purveyors. We’ve also participated in local farm visits with the Zilkha Center and hosted community meals.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)

Both a Winter Study course (ECON 22/POEC 22) pioneered by Professor Lucie Schmidt and a community service program (Purple Valley VITA) this initiative provides low-income taxpayers free filing assistance.  IRS-certified student volunteers, who train through the winter study course, help local clients retrieve over $250,000 annually in federal and state tax refunds. For more information, contact VITA program administrator and CLiA Director Paula Consolini at [email protected] and visit learning-in-action.williams.edu/courses-teaching/volunteer-income-tax-assistance-program.

Where Am I?!

First-year orientation program in which 100 frosh, guided by experienced student leaders, spend their first weekend getting to know the northern Berkshires through field trips, road trips, cook-outs with local families, and community engagement work, introducing them to ways they can help improve the local community.  Contact Chaplain The Rev. Valerie Bailey Fischer ([email protected]) and visit learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/where-am-i for more information.

Williams Animal Awareness Group

Student Leaders: Tiffani Castro ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Paula Consolini
Meeting Time/Place: Paresky

WAAG aims to help animals both within and beyond the Williams Community by facilitating informed and thoughtful discussions on issues concerning animals. In addition, WAAG creates several opportunities for people to engage with animals to relieve stress. Students can either volunteer with Bonnie Lea Farm, Clover Hill Farm, and the Berkshire Humane Society (Humane Race held in early May), where they can interact with several animals such as horses, chickens, cows, dogs, and cats.

Williams College Oral Health Society

Student Leaders: Yuchen (Amy) Wang (ynw1) & Sara Lopez-Quintana (sll4)
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Rebecca Counter

Are you interested in dentistry? The Oral Health Society supports the pre-dental students at Williams College and promotes oral health awareness on and off campus. On an educational front, we engage with local service programs in Williamstown and the surrounding areas of Berkshire County to teach the youth about the importance of proper oral hygiene. On campus, we serve as an outlet for any student who is interested in dentistry by providing advice, guidance, and resources when it comes to educational and professional development. We sponsor dental school visits, aid with pre-health/research summer program applications, and connect our members with alumni as well as fellow pre-dental students from other institutions.

Williams Effective Altruism

Student Leaders: Alex Kim (ajk5) and Alexis Ahn (aa19)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Sarah Jacobson

Williams Effective Altruism aims to help students think more actively and rationally about the various problems the world faces, so that they can maximize their positive impact. Our main activity on campus is our introductory fellowship, where we talk about how we can use our resources and careers to tackle some of the most pressing problems in the world, including ending global poverty and factory farming, mitigating technological risks, preventing future pandemics, and stopping climate change. To learn more, please visit our official website.

Williams Homeless Outreach

Student Leaders: Julia Cheng ([email protected]), Aaron Maruzzo ([email protected]), Aaron Goldstein ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Paula Consolini ([email protected]), Jingyi Liu ’14
Meeting Time/Place: Biweekly Mondays 5pm, Paresky 112

Williams Homeless Outreach (WHO) is dedicated to raising campus awareness and enacting systemic change regarding the issues of homelessness and economic disparity, especially as they pertain to the local families of rural Massachusetts. Our club meets biweekly to collaboratively create student-led, philanthropic initiatives that are determined by the interests of the current members of WHO. Additionally, we provide a platform for volunteerism at local non-profits such as, but not limited to, Horizons for Homeless Children, Berkshire Food Project and the Friendship Center Food Pantry.

Facebook
WHO Facebook Page

WHO Intro PowerPoint (PPTX)

Williams Insight

Student Leaders: Stephen Kletscher ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: David Zimmerman

We are the Williams College financial publication club. We hold weekly meetings where we discuss the latest evolutions of the markets and plan our articles. Our articles comprise analysis of publicly-traded companies, the state of the markets, etc.

Williams Refugee Advancement Coalition

This group is inactive as of the 2022-23 academic year.

Student Leaders: Kazi Raleh (kfr1) & Jonathan Breibart (jsb8)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Colin Ovitsky (cmo2)

The Williams Refugee Advancement Coalition seeks to assist in the advancement of refugees and evacuees coming into Berkshire County. Currently, we are collaborating with the Center for Learning in Action, Jewish Family Service, and other local organizations to mobilize structural assistance and create a welcoming environment for 60 Afghan evacuees who are in the process of being relocated to Pittsfield, MA. As the resettlement process further develops, we expect to be providing a diverse array of services that could make a tangible difference in their new lives and we would love your help!

Williamstown Chamber of Commerce

The Williamstown Chamber of Commerce serves Williamstown and our neighboring communities by supporting efforts in communication, education and coordination of our members, our residents and our visitors.
Williamstown is the home of two major institutions – Williams College and The Clark Art Institute. Many of the visitors to our community come here initially for one of those two but return (or stay) for many other reasons. We are nearby great skiing, gorgeous golf, cultural attractions, and natural beauty.

Additional Information & Current Opportunities:

learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/williamstown-chamber-of-commerce

Willy Good Wood

Student Leaders: Geff Fisher ([email protected]), Jensen Pak ([email protected]u), Robert Hefferon ([email protected]), Evelyn Mahon ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Ben Lamb ([email protected])
Meeting Time/Place: Monthly, First Congregational Church

Our organization aims to provide an opportunity for Williams College students to learn and practice woodworking and related handicrafts in a safe and educational environment. We also aim to engage with the community through woodworking-related service projects with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity. The club offers a place for students to create and work with their hands in a way that may not be included in their normal academic schedule, and a chance to engage in community service projects using the skills they have acquired through club activities.

WRAPS

Student Leaders: Bekah Lindsay (ral2) & Charlotte Luke (cel3)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Colin Ovitsky

WRAPS works at the intersection of food insecurity and food waste, employing a two-part model that connects the Williams College campus with the North Adams community. WRAPS packages excess dining hall food into meals that are then distributed to local organizations in North Adams while working to expand our impact through collaboration with on-campus and community partners.