On March 10th, 2021, Ethan Zuckerman ’93 gave a talk titled “Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them.” If you missed the talk or would like to view it again, here is a link to the video recording on Williams YouTube. Continue reading »
On March 9 of 2020, I walked out of Greylock Elementary School, fully expecting to return the following week. I was a Science Fellow, part of a program where Williams College students visit one of the North Adams Public Schools (NAPS) every week to teach a science lesson. My partner… Continue reading »
Over the extended winter break, many students may have felt restless and disconnected from the Berkshire community, but some remedied that by putting their technological skills to use through remote volunteer work for local Berkshire nonprofits and businesses. These students participated in the Remote Support Program, an entirely online community… Continue reading »
I still remember the first time I stepped foot into Brayton Elementary School in North Adams. After weeks of searching for the perfect job with the Center for Learning in Action (CLiA), I was given the opportunity to work at Brayton as both a science fellow and a first grade… Continue reading »
As schools began to shut down in March in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many anxious parents scrambled and searched for ways to maintain and support their children’s education. This was a time unlike any other; school administrators and teachers needed to create a remote, emergency curriculum quickly, while… Continue reading »
Even in the best of circumstances, it would be hard to keep up with all the community work and engaged learning Williams students do. In these times of small face-to-face social circles and carefully choreographed digital ones, staying in touch with the world beyond Williams has grown even more challenging. Continue reading »
Since March 2020, members of the Williams community have sought to connect in new ways. We asked members of our college community to share creative expressions of what community means to them in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. This project is a reflection of how important the arts are… Continue reading »
Paula Consolini and Nathan Thimothe ’22 talk with iBerkshiresTV about the Center for Learning in Action (CLiA) at Williams College. Continue reading »
It was storytime this past week at Williams College. But the rising fifth- and sixth-graders at the college’s Summer Science Lab were not being told stories. They were challenged to make up stories. As part of the weeklong day camp, campers were assigned each night to think about a phenomenon… Continue reading »
Williams College has announced the winners of the Dr. Herchel Smith Fellowship for graduate study at Cambridge University’s Emmanuel College. The eight seniors awarded the fellowship are Noah Betz-Richman, Krista Gelev, Eleanor Lustig, Jonathan Meng, Samuel Reinert, Thomas Riley, Samuel Swire and Angela Yeo. Full Article… Continue reading »
Over the course of three weeks, third-grade science classes in three local schools have been able to witness an underwater circle of life from the comfort of their classrooms. For eight years now, through the Winter Study program at Williams College, faculty and students have brought a hands-on biology program… Continue reading »
As a seasonal worker, Diane Miranda doesn’t have a lot of money to throw around. So instead of paying an accounting firm $300 to file her taxes, she’s taking advantage of the free income tax preparation program offered by Berkshire Community Action Council. “At no cost, you get all your… Continue reading »
A partnership between the Williams College Center for Learning in Action (CLiA) and the Berkshire County House of Corrections offers tutoring in writing, reading and math to inmates planning to take the HiSET, a high school equivalency exam, in preparation for their upcoming release. Full Article… Continue reading »
The Justice League Club at Reid Middle School is giving seventh-graders a chance to represent themselves for who they are, not who other people think they are or expect them to be. Some of the middle school students involved say they have been characterized by people in various ways, from… Continue reading »
Since September of 2015, Take and Eat has been an effort from the Williams College Chaplain’s Office and Williams College InterFaith with one simple goal: to provide meals to those in need. Take and Eat, Inc. is a faith-based nonprofit in North Adams, MA dedicated to providing meals for the… Continue reading »
How would you describe Give it Up! to someone who’s never heard of it before? Give it Up! is a program run by the Center for Learning in Action (CLiA) at Williams College with some support from the Zilkha Center. It’s a service for students to make it accessible and convenient… Continue reading »
Over spring break, eight students and OSL’s Assistant Director for Student Organizations and Involvement Benjamin Lamb went on the Meaningful Mystic Spring Break Out Trip. The students engaged in meaningful work that revolved around environmental sustainability and climate change through a historical lens in Mystic, Connecticut. Full Article… Continue reading »
“The Ghana ThinkTank is totally separate from everything else I’ve done at Williams,” Eleanor Lustig ’18 told me, one weekday morning in early March. “I got involved because it’s a different angle than I’ve ever taken on sustainability work at Williams.” Lustig has significant experience in activism and sustainability work: She’s… Continue reading »
The innovative, locally sourced meals prepared by the dining services team for the students of Williams College now grace the tables of a local homeless shelter and local food projects to help feed locals facing food insecurity. Full Article… Continue reading »
It’s a sunny afternoon, but students at Brayton Elementary School are already staring at constellations in the night sky. After an astronomy lesson about the stars, first-graders in Jacqueline Thomas’ class were tasked with forming their own constellations using gold star-shaped stickers and black paper. With limitless imagination, the students… Continue reading »
Learning went both ways at Williams College’s Summer Science Lab this month. “One of my interns said this morning, ‘The kids were my teachers this week as well,’ ” lab director Stephen Bechtel said last week. Bechtel spoke as week one came to an end at the day camp for… Continue reading »
A science-based “wow” factor is very much in play at the 17th Williams College Summer Science Lab at the college’s Morley Scientific Laboratory. Full Article… Continue reading »
The college students are teaching the kids, but in the end, the kids end up teaching their teachers, too. Entering the third year of a four-year grant, undergraduates from MCLA and Williams College have worked with both elementary teachers and college science professors to develop inquiry-based units of instruction based… Continue reading »
Williams College junior Jeffrey Rubel helped a team of Mount Greylock students take fourth place statewide in their first-ever appearance at Envirothon. Full Article… Continue reading »
On May 12, a group of local high school students will compete in a statewide environmental science competition called Envirothon. The event—which takes place at Hopkinton State Park in eastern Massachusetts—brings teams from across the state to an outdoor, hands-on competition. Winning teams from each state will compete in Ontario… Continue reading »
Matthew McNaughton ’16, Emily Roach ’16, and Leslie Chae ’16, participated in the Williams Elementary Outreach iTeam, a pilot program of CLiA. They worked with students at Brayton Elementary in North Adams for “The Hour of Code,” to introduce young students to what coding is and get them excited. The students… Continue reading »
Students aren’t just playing computer games, they’re learning to make them. Full Article (PDF)… Continue reading »
Williams College may be known as a premiere liberal arts college, but it’s contribution to the sciences at Williamstown Elementary School are significant. Representatives from the college’s Center for Learning in Action addressed the School Committee at its February meeting to talk about the relationship between Williams and the elementary… Continue reading »
Williams College announced today that it will form a $5 million fund to support the Mount Greylock Regional School District’s capital needs outside the scope of the building project that the district is pursuing with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). Full Article… Continue reading »
For the past week, the fourth-grade classrooms of Sean MacDonald and Jenn Szymanski at Lanesborough Elementary School have been transformed into satellite biology laboratories, where kids could study genetics, embryonic development and animal science from the comfort of their own desks and chairs. The Williams College Center for Learning in… Continue reading »
Williams College will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. with a day of events on Monday, January 18. All are welcome to attend these free, public events. Full Article… Continue reading »
This morning, 166 high school students from Mt. Greylock Regional High School, BArT, and Deerfield Academy experienced the joy of learning math at Williams College. Started by Professor of Mathematics Olga R. Beaver, MathBlast is meant to expose high school students to exciting topics in math that are… Continue reading »
Williams College and Mount Greylock Regional School announced today a gift from Williams that will expand the college’s longstanding partnership with the school to include annual operating funds. Full Article… Continue reading »
During Winter Study, Sexual Wellness Advocacy Group (SWAG), an organization composed of students at the College, will hold workshops to educate all students who attend the Buxton School, located in Williamstown, on consent and healthy relationships. Full Article… Continue reading »
Brayton Elementary School has received a $35,000 boost in technology thanks to donations from BJ’s Wholesale and a former resident connected to the school system. Stephen Drotter, son of late Drury High School Principal Stephen J. Drotter, donated $25,000 as memorial to his wife, Lynn Whitney Dion Drotter. The two donations will… Continue reading »
On Saturday, the College launched Teach It Forward, a fundraising campaign that aims to raise $650 million. Full Article… Continue reading »
Michael Curtin ’86 spoke last Friday in Paresky Auditorium, giving a talk entitled, “Fighting Food Insecurity and Poverty in America,” which addressed the history and mission of D.C. Central Kitchen (DCCK), a community kitchen founded by former nightclub owner Robert Egger. Full Article… Continue reading »
Michael F. Curtin, Jr. ’86, executive director of D.C. Central Kitchen and 2015 Bicentennial Medalist, will speak at Williams College on Friday, Sept. 18, about his experience in engineering path-breaking solutions to alleviate food insecurity, health disparities and poverty in America. The talk will begin at 2 p.m. in the… Continue reading »
There are plenty of creams, tablets and elixirs on the market that claim to cure health problems and ease ailments, but do they actually work? During this month’s Williams College Summer Science Lab sessions, students were able to use professional tools to investigate household compounds, putting things like antacids to… Continue reading »
Emily George had no idea that a dozen neighborhood schools once dotted the city where she lives. But Emily and other Brayton Elementary School third-graders learned about a former school on Miner Street and even one-room schools, among others that existed circa-1896. Full Article… Continue reading »
Early on a recent spring morning, physics professor Tiku Majumder asked more than 70 Mount Greylock Regional High School students gathered in Wege Auditorium to consider a different view of science. Full Article Video… Continue reading »
Learning the geography of New England. Creating illustrated books. Studying how to draw koi fish using Japanese techniques. These are just a few of the innovate ways teachers at Greylock and Brayton elementary schools are using iPads in their classrooms — iPads given to the schools through their relationship with… Continue reading »
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected Williams College to receive its Community Engagement Classification. Williams was one of 240 institutions to earn this distinction in 2015, 83 of them for the first time. Full Article… Continue reading »
Via a live video link, Hedrick Smith ’55 will join the event “Rules Change and the American Dream: A Dialogue Across Generations” at Williams College on Tuesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, Bernhard Music Center. After summarizing findings from two years of nationwide speaking and listening,… Continue reading »
Williams College has hired Sharif Rosen as the new Muslim chaplain and assistant director of the Center for Learning in Action. Full Article… Continue reading »
Williams College President Adam Falk will today join President Obama, the First Lady, and Vice President Biden along with hundreds of college presidents and other higher education leaders to announce new actions to help more students prepare for and graduate from college. Full Article… Continue reading »
With the departure of former Muslim chaplain Bilal Ansari to the new Zaytuna College in California, the College is considering his legacy as they search for a new Muslim chaplain. Full Article… Continue reading »
Thanks to two Williams seniors and associate professor of Chinese Li Yu, local high school students can now take introductory Chinese. Full Article… Continue reading »
Ten dozen donuts and bagels, 100 granola bars, 5 boxes of coffee, 150 bag lunches, and 150 T-shirts. That’s what it took to fuel 150 Williams students who fanned out across 14 nearby schools, churches, and nonprofit organizations for this year’s Great Day of Service in April. Full… Continue reading »
During spring break, Williams students scatter to the four winds. Some train with their teams or tour with performance groups. Others pursue academic research. But for a large number of students, spring break is a time to learn about and serve in communities as diverse as New Orleans, Nicaragua, and… Continue reading »
Fourth-grade students and teachers at Williamstown, Brayton, and Greylock Elementary Schools have engaged this fall in a newly developed science curriculum created in collaboration with Williams College. The curriculum focuses on the subject of “Energy” and was written last summer by Sarah Gottesman ’14 and Mpaza Kapembwa ’15 under the… Continue reading »
The warm-up game for 93 8th graders is simple. Pick one of three words: “stop,” “go,” or “listen.” When it’s your turn, stand up and face your peers, then speak your word loudly and clearly. Sit down, and it’s on to the next student. The game’s coach and referee is… Continue reading »
Bilal Ansari wastes no time. Williams’ first Muslim chaplain and associate coordinator of community engagement arrived on campus on August 28, 2011. By August 31 he was hosting a feast for Muslim students to celebrate the end of Ramadan and helping lead Williamstown efforts to support residents flooded out of… Continue reading »
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