Spotlights

Alumni Spotlight

Jaelon Moaney ’19 and Mandela Namaste ’19 met in a seminar class on The Politics of Belonging their senior year. They came with a shared curiosity about their personal histories; they left with a friendship. Jaelon is now the manager of federal relations for the American Institute of Architects, while Mandela is a freelance journalist and aspiring screenwriter. Here, they talk about their paths to, through and beyond Williams.

Student Spotlight

In the introductory course Oceanography, Vanya Funez ’26 and her classmates spent the semester studying topics including the archive of Earth’s history contained in seafloor sediments, the transfer of energy and matter in ocean food webs, and how ocean basins are created and destroyed. A highlight was exploring the shores of Connecticut and Rhode Island during a day-long trip facilitated by the Williams-Mystic Program, where hands-on research and guest speakers brought to life the concepts they learned in the classroom. 

Alumni Spotlight

Devon Parfait '22, coastal resilience analyst for the Environmental Defense Fund and chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac band of Biloxi Chitimacha Choctaw, spoke to Rolling Stone about how his geoscience research at Williams and post-graduation professional experiences have empowered him to advocate for his tribal community and protect Louisiana’s crumbling coastline.

Student Spotlight

For students like singer/songwriter Bellamy Richardson ’23, Studio 275—Williams’ state-of-the-art recording space—offers an ideal environment to explore creative pursuits more deeply. She took the Winter Study course Contemporary American Songwriting during her first year at Williams, and since then has continued taking private lessons, building on some of her earlier songs and writing new ones. Through her experience in the studio, Bellamy has embraced learning how the recording process works—and how it enhances her own songwriting.

Faculty Spotlight

A student's discovery of an unknown brain structure led biology professor Matt Carter and his undergraduate research team to groundbreaking research on the area of animals' brains that communicate fullness during eating. Now their work is poised to have a substantial impact on the field of neuroscience.

Alumni Spotlight

Named the 2022 New York State Teacher of the Year, Billy Green ’03 has an untraditional teaching style that focuses on culturally responsive education. "One of the greatest models I learned from Williams College was that in order to succeed...in the world, you needed to know how to collaborate with different people and different places, things, communities."

Faculty Spotlight

English professor Bernie Rhie teaches classes on the conception of the self, Buddhism’s influence on American literature and culture, and Asian American literature, among other subjects, and leads the weekly Williamstown Meditation Group. The creator of popular Instagram account @Zen_Prof discusses the value of incorporating contemplative practices into his teaching.

Student Spotlight

Rather than a traditional final paper, students in the new course Cuba, U.S., Africa and Resistance to Black Enslavement, 1791-1991, chose to create a podcast series to gain a more practical understanding of the class’s themes. The result, titled "Community, Betrayal and Captivity," connects the “entwined histories of liberation movements against racism, enslavement and imperialism” to the present day through interviews with alumni working in civil rights and human rights.

Alumni Spotlight

“I started climbing probably around the same time I started really studying geology, so they kind of go hand in hand.” Grand Canyon National Park paleontologist Erikka Olson ’19 achieves her dream of taking on Mount Hayden—and discusses Williams and her intertwined loves of geology and climbing—as the winner of Mammut's Reach Your Peak competition.

Student Spotlight

Nathan Liang ’24 created a library of virtual instruments, called The Storm Orchestra,
which allows users to “play” a coastal storm. Liang’s idea for The Storm Orchestra was inspired by a National Science Foundation grant-supported summer research trip to Ireland’s west coast led by geosciences professor Rónadh Cox, where he and four other students spent several weeks making field recordings and assisting with other field data collection to learn how boulder beaches respond to storms and change over time.

Faculty Spotlight

Anthropology professor David Edwards worked with students from Williams, the American University of Afghanistan and Central European University on a documentary about the lives of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees living in Europe. “It’s a film that tries to humanize and to document...It dissects elements of what it is to be a refugee, how they live their lives, and what Ukrainians and Afghans have in common.”

Student Spotlight

“I believe working here this summer has built the foundation for myself as a fashion designer and I could not be more thankful for this opportunity.” Justin Adams ’23 sourced and designed a clothing line. Daltanette Mitchell ’23 augmented elementary school curriculum. And Zoe Kaegi ’23 researched the human brain. These are just a few samples of the work 202 Williams students engaged in this past summer with the help of the Alumni Sponsored Internship Program.