This group is inactive as of the 2023-24 academic year.
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.
This group is currently inactive.
Student Leaders: Amina Diop ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Eva Goedhart
We are the Williams College student chapter of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). The chapter was established in 2014 in response to the lack of existing structures or programming for women in math and the discrimination that went unnoticed both inside classrooms and out. We work on two levels: (1) we aim to provide a social space for members of underrepresented minorities in STEM who have felt uncomfortable in general math settings and (2) we work towards long-term structural changes that will make the Williams Math Department more inclusive.
Berkshire Humane Society is a private, nonprofit, open-admission animal support organization with a twofold mission:
1. to ensure the compassionate care, treatment, and whenever possible, placement of homeless animals through the shelter operation, and
2. to promote and improve the welfare of all animals through community education and outreach
Additional Information & Current Opportunities:
learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/berkshire-humane-society
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
The Black STEM Student Association (BSTEM) aims to create a collaborative and supportive space in which Black and other underrepresented students hoping to pursue careers in STEM+ are encouraged to continue their studies in the STEM fields and can freely and directly speak of their experiences in the STEM fields.
This group is inactive as of the 2023-24 academic year.
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.
Help CLiA build community engagement at Williams by serving as one of our academic year Outreach Associates. Outreach Associates work on event and program organization, preparation and promotion. They also help with program logistics, reflection and revision in an area or on an issue of special interest.
Additional Information & Application:
learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/clia-community-outreach-associate/
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
The Center for Learning in Action hires students to assist in various aspects of our office and program operations during the academic year.
Additional Information & Application:
http://learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/clia-office-assistant
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!
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.
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:
Additional Information & Opportunities:
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.
This group is currently inactive.
Student Leaders: Donglin Zhang
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Barbara Fuller
Meeting Time/Place: Tuesday evenings, Paresky
1. Organizes activities, trips, and events that will help Williams students to cultivate their passion for medicine. 2. Consolidates sources of information about the field of health care, including speakers and health care professionals, to help Williams students make well-informed decisions about preparing and pursuing a career in medicine. 3. Serves as a liaison between the Health Professions Advisor and the various pre-health students of Williams College.
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
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.
Many students find math dry in high school and junior high school. The purpose of the webpage is to help students and teachers see that math can be fun, interesting and applicable.
In addition to the riddles, there is a student/teacher corner where detailed explanations are given, not just of how to solve the problem, but how to try to attack it. In particular, often promising approaches that don’t pan out are discussed. The purpose is to help students and teachers learn how to approach new problems.
Additional Information & Current Opportunities:
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.
This group is currently inactive.
Student Leaders: Carson Kurtz ([email protected])
Faculty/Staff Adviser: Caroline Bruno
Meeting Time/Place: Friday evening, Zilkha Center kitchen
The two overarching goals of the organization are to teach members of the community useful cooking techniques and immerse them in the process of raising money for charity. We hope that through our organization participants will learn and become comfortable with a variety of cooking techniques, thereby acquiring a valuable life skill that students ordinarily are not exposed to in the academic classroom. Through the culinary lessons and time allotted to practice, we hope to build and foster a sense of community around food. Another element of the club consists of familiarizing and raising awareness about various social and medical issues around the world.
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
Goals:
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
Purple Bike Coalition is a student-run bike shop on campus that provides free repairs and semester bike rentals.
The Wilderness Society‘s mission is to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. We contribute to better protection, stewardship and restoration of our public lands, preserving our rich natural legacy for current and future generations.
Additional Information & Current Opportunities:
learning-in-action.williams.edu/opportunities/the-wilderness-society/
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.
This group is currently inactive.
Thursday Night Grassroots was formed to create an outlet for direct student action in the face of global environmental catastrophe and immense social inequality. The group strives to highlight and actively address these issues within the context of our community, our state, and our nation. The group believes that Williams students are among a small percentage of privileged people globally and that with that privilege comes a responsibility to take action against all forms of injustice. The group also believes that the greatest threat to peace and stability in our world today is that of climate change, and chooses to particularly address this threat to global social justice. They seek to illustrate the fundamental and undeniable connections between environmental impacts and their consequences on our society’s ability to be truly just. The group directs its greatest effort towards building a movement to put our school, state, and nation on a path towards environmental sustainability.
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
We will learn about bees both through lecture-type meetings and by visiting the hives of local beekeepers. We will also strive to establish beehives on campus.
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
We hold birding trips on and around campus, such as in Hopkins Forest and surrounding lakes.
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
An environmental advocacy and action group committed to inspiring Williams students and members of the surrounding community to take local, state, and national action against the threat of climate change and other forms of environmental destruction.
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
We help students explore, protect, and fish the local waterways.
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
WOC leads weekly outdoor activities for the school community, lends gear for community members to go on their own adventures, and hosts large all-school events throughout the year. The board includes about 20 students who work to make the outdoors a more fun and accessible place for everyone on campus.
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
We are the gardening club at Williams. We maintain Parsons Garden in front of Parsons House with weekly work meetings where club members can come and do some relaxing gardening work. We also host events open to the Williams community where we cook food we grow in the garden. We also partner with various other clubs to hold events to involve different parts of the Williams community in the garden club.
When available, the complete list of active Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Campus Life website. If you would like to contact the student leader(s) of this organization, please email [email protected].
A one-day fall program weatherizing low income homes in Berkshire County run through the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives. Students train and then work with faculty, staff and community volunteers preparing area homes for the winter.