Williams-Mystic Program
To most of its alums, the most awesome study-away semester program ever. Involves going down to Mystic, Connecticut, living in houses of 4-7 people from various liberal arts colleges, cooking (and sometimes maybe even cleaning) for yourself, across from a museum with three tall ships and several hundred smaller ones. Also involves a 10-day trip on a 133-foot tall ship, a week-long trip to the West Coast, and a 4-day trip to Louisiana or the Chesapeake Bay. Also copious time spent doing individual research in a marsh, river, beach, rocky intertidal zone, or whatever coastal environment you prefer. The other three major research papers will have you calling fishery commissions (policy), reading Melville's non-Moby-sized maritime stories (literature), and turning the pages of a 200-year-old ship's log with gloved hands in the museum collections (history). Super-interdisciplinary, all with amazingly always-there-for-you professors.
Professors
The entire program has 20 (+/- 2) students with five professors:
- Jim Carlton (Marine Ecology, Program Director)
- Glenn Gordinier (Maritime History, 1600-present)
- Lisa Gilbert (Oceanography)
- Katy Robinson Hall (Marine Policy)
- Rich King (Literature of the Sea)
Curriculum
In addition to course offerings available only in the Mystic program, you also get to take skills, including:
Alumni
Williams College alumni of the Williams-Mystic program include Andrea Burke '06, Evan Chadwick '06, Tyler Corson-Rikert '06, Candice Corvetti '07, Eliot Crafton '06, Diana Davis '07, Elizabeth Doran '06, Emily Fertig '06, Jamie Hensel '05, Ariel Heyman '08, Elise Leduc '06, Sara Martin '07, Abby McBride '06, Jane McCamant '05, Christine M. Marshall '08, Katie Montgomery '07, Jim Prevas '06, Macy Radloff '06, Alden Robinson '06, Kate Scheider '07, Eleanor Schmidt '06, Erin Weekley '06, Randy Dorf '09, Fathimah Musthaq '09, Libby Miles '09, Susan Raich '09, Ale Jochum '09, Emily Flynn '09, Jordan Landers '09, Randy Dorf '09, Nontombi Kraai '09, Sunmi Yang '08, Emily Barrios '10, Lizzy Brickley '10, Bex Gilbert '10, Allie Goldberg '10, and Abby Martin '11. Several of these have become real, live sailors.