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International Development

Amnesty International

This group is currently inactive.

2014-2015 Student Leaders: Sierra Jubin ([email protected]), Abby Rampone ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Amy Merselis ([email protected])
Meeting Time/Place: Thursdays in Paresky

The Williams College Amnesty International Chapter was created for the purpose of helping Amnesty International by whatever means we can in Amnesty International’s efforts to secure basic human rights for millions of people worldwide.  The group aims to learn about and help specific people or issues suggested by Amnesty International at each meeting. They also aspire to educate the Williams student body about general human rights issues through informational campaigns, film screenings, or other avenues as deemed viable by the WCAIC.

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

 

Darfur Cookie Project

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Isabel Abraham ([email protected]), Todd Hall ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Tendai Muparutsa ([email protected])
Meeting Time/Place: Once per month, Paresky

This project is an attempt to bake and sell 400,000 cookies. We bake and sell cookies to raise money for the Jewish World Watch Solar Cooker Project. The Solar Cooker Project provides solar powered stoves for refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan, who are in camps in Chad. We also hope that our project will help people understand the enormity of genocide.

Future Optometrists and Dentists of Williams

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

Student Leaders: Hanbin Koo (hk7) & Chuhan Geng (cg7)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Rebecca Counter

Are you interested in exploring careers in healthcare, volunteering remotely, or applying to optometry or dental school? Join our organization! Through programs that involve us in the North Adams School District, we engage with educational programs that teach youth about the importance of proper eye care and oral hygiene, as well as run as a toothbrushing program (we are looking to relaunch this program when it is safe to do so). We are currently working on a collaboration with a non-profit that’s helping Nepalese-Bhutanese refugee youth earn a GED diploma to launch a 15-minute phone call initiative to help students improve their communication skills. We also attend virtual optometry and dental school visits, can connect you to former students, share OAT/DAT study resources, support you through the process of applying to pre-health and research summer programs, and forward pre-med/pre-health resources. Many of our activities are useful for pre-health students in general. We’d love to welcome you!

Global Initiatives Group

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Rehaan Vij ([email protected]), Danielle Grier ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Ngonidzashe Munemo ([email protected])
Meeting Time/Place: Paresky

Global Initiatives Group (GIG) aims to build and broaden the current levels of international awareness and cultural understanding among the college community. With a focus on engaging students on globally pertinent ideas, perspectives and experiences, the group hopes to contribute towards strengthening the level of appreciation for global diversity and the sense of global responsibility among the college community.

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

Medical Brigades of Williams

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

Student Leaders: Anabella Cheong (ac33) & Iulia Stanciu (is9)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Rebecca Counter

The Medical Brigades of Williams prepares members to volunteer and shadow doctors in outpatient clinical settings. We work with clinics set up in Honduras, Ghana, Panama, Greece, and Guatemala where local communities struggle to gain access to reliable, permanent healthcare. Our organization plans to raise the funds necessary for students to travel to these destinations and work directly with medical professionals to help establish clinics that are lasting and eventually run by locals.

Opportunities in Africa

There are many options at Williams for experiential learning in Africa! Placement assistance and some funding are available for student fieldwork opportunities through Winter Study travel courses and independent studies (WSP99’s), summer policy research, teaching, and community development internships and spring break service projects in South Africa, Ghana, and other African countries. Visit here for more information or email Dr. Consolini 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.

Reclaim Childhood

This group is currently inactive.

Student Leaders: Annie Vanagenen ([email protected]), Allie Holle ([email protected]), Kara Sperry ([email protected]), Julia Diaz ([email protected]), Katherine Rosen ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Christi Kelsey ([email protected])
Meeting Time/Place: Sundays, Paresky

Reclaim Childhood is a non-profit organization based in Amman, Jordan that seeks to empower refugee girls and local women through sport and play. Reclaim Childhood operates regular after-school sports leagues and a month-long summer camp for girls ages 6 – 18, and coaching clinics for local adult women. On campus, we try to devise creative ways to raise money for the organization through dining hall dinners, athletics, and other events. With the money we raise, we send it to the organization which in turn purchases athletic equipment for the girls, as well as funds the summer camps for them. In addition to working during the school year, some of our members have spent their summers in Jordan working as camp counselors at these camps.

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.

South East Asian Students

Student Leaders: Daniel Chun Ernn Kam (dk18) & Nhi Phan (nmp5)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Jan Padios

This student body serves to represent Southeast Asian identifying students and promote cultural exchange for all students. We seek to provide safe spaces and events to build community, articulate our identities, and connect with both allies and faculty. Beyond just social events, we also plan on engaging internationally through fundraising for Southeast Asian countries in crisis and lobbying for Southeast Asian student needs within the campus. We aim to create spaces that will facilitate critical engagement, interrogation, and exploration of Southeast Asian cultures and the legacies embedded therein. We affirm the diversity of Southeast Asian cultures, ethnicities, and subcultures, as well as recognize the capacity for solidarity within the community.

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 Empower Through Health

Student Leaders: Nina van der Velde (ncv1) & Rebecca Kim (rdk3)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Kiaran Honderich

Williams ETH seeks to pioneer the fight against the global mental health crisis by supporting the organization who provides psychiatric medical care and reforming social norms regarding mental illness in the Busoga region of Uganda. Through partnerships with the community, we hope to create long-term, sustainable improvements regarding treatment for those suffering from psychosis, among other mental illnesses. In addition to empowering and expanding health education locally, we aim to involve the Williams community through creating interdisciplinary dialogue surrounding global health inequities with a primary focus on mental health. Ultimately, our work to provide scientifically-based education and treatment is rooted in the necessity to not only dispel misconceptions surrounding mental illness, but to facilitate the incorporation of mental health as an essential aspect of universal health.

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!