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Williams-Mystic

The Coastal & Ocean Studies Semester of Williams College and Mystic Seaport. Learn more at mystic.williams.edu! Learn more and apply now at mystic.williams.edu.

Undergraduates of all majors from all accredited colleges and universities are welcome to apply. At Williams-Mystic, you'll spend our 17-week semester rediscovering three-quarters of your world. You'll learn about America's oceans and coasts firsthand: By traveling to field sites on all three of America's coasts, by spending 10 days sailing on the open ocean, and by producing original research in

policy, science, literature, and history. We welcome undergraduates of ALL majors from all accredited colleges and universities. We also meet 100% of our students' financial need.

06/04/2026

A recent New York Times article about the future of a $368 million deep-ocean observation system ocean features Williams-Mystic alum Hilary Palevsky F05 (Amherst College '07)

Now a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Boston College, Palevsky studies how the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a key influence on global climate and ongoing climate change. Her research relies on long-term ocean observations, among them data collected from Ocean Observatories Initiative sites.

In the article, Palevsky discusses what could be lost if these observing systems are dismantled: not only valuable scientific data, but also the expertise required to build, deploy, and maintain them.

"One of the real tragedies here is that collecting data effectively at this site was a huge engineering challenge," she told the Times. "There's a lot of expertise that has the potential to be lost."

Article linked in comments.

05/14/2026

Oil Slicks, Illegal Ships & Other Terrible Ideas: Stories from the Front Lines of Environmental Crime!

Guest speaker at the WM Alumni Swizzle in Maine on Sunday, May 17 David Joyce F98, (Williams'00), former Assistant U.S. Attorney for Maine, who spent years prosecuting environmental crimes for the Department of Justice. His cases have involved everything from illegal pollution and oil slicks to wildlife trafficking and industrial disasters. Drawing on his work under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Lacey Act, and other federal laws, David will share stories from the front lines of environmental enforcement.

Other special guests? The WM S26 class, during their Maine coast field seminar!
Check your email for the full details, or email [email protected] if you'd like to attend and need the scoop, we hope to see you there!

WM Maine Swizzle
Schiller Coastal Studies Center
Orr’s Island, Maine
Sunday, May 17 at 6:15 pm
Guests are invited to explore the stunning coastal trails at the Schiller Center before joining us for dinner.

05/04/2026

Sharing words of wisdom from inside a certain WM house closet and a sign from New Orleans.

This is for the spring 26 Williams-Mystic students (and anyone else who needs to hear this today) on their final academic pushes before we head out on the Main Coast Field Seminar later this month--you're allllmooooost there!

04/28/2026

Do you have favorite music pieces that can transport you to the ocean and coast? Or, if you’re an alum, songs that are part of the fabric of your time at Williams-Mystic?

Sam, a spring 26 WM student from Vassar, is creating a playlist as part of her final Global Ocean Lit project, and would love help from this community!

If you’d like to contribute, please drop the song titles and artists in the comments👇 (or a link to a playlist) or message us with photos of your class mixtapes and CDs!

(Thank you! We’ll all have some ocean tunes to enjoy this summer, Sam will share the final playlist with all of us!) 🌊

04/24/2026

Yes, we're all about coastal and ocean studies here, but that's not all! One of the students working on our social media team put this together about her sail making and sailing skills class this spring!

04/21/2026

Dear WM alumni and friends, we have a request for you!

We’re two S26 students and for our Maritime History research projects, we're exploring the role of food in shaping community, past and present. Our program has always had a focus on community, so we want to record an integral piece that brings us together: food.

Food is a facet of storytelling. From the way recipes come to be, down to the ingredients, there's always a story being told. When we discovered "Galley Watch" (the WM 20th anniversary cookbook) in our houses, we were struck with a question: How does the sharing of culture between students, staff, faculty, friends, guests, and alumni culminate in the social life of food at Williams-Mystic?

As part of this project, we’re collecting recipes and the stories that come with them to better understand how dishes, traditions, and shared meals carry meaning across semesters and generations, both in Mystic, from WM friends and family members, from alumni and through people we meet on field seminars.

That’s where you come in. Whether it’s something you made in your house, discovered on a field seminar or just a dish that brings you right back to your semester in Mystic, we’d love to include your recipes and stories in this project.

We’re happy to take written
submissions, audio recordings, or even set up a call or Zoom if you’d rather talk it through.

For the purposes of our paper, your primary source submissions of stories and recipes before Monday, April 27 are most helpful. Please email [email protected] to contact us, and thank you!

We’re hoping this project will also be the beginning of a 50th anniversary Williams-Mystic cookbook, interested in volunteering on that with us? Let us know!

Best Fishes,
Zoe Diaz, Bates College & Liv Dentoni, Mt. Holyoke College
Williams-Mystic S26

04/06/2026

Aye aye, hearties! 🐋⛵️We’re Ming and Zoe, and we’re so excited to show everyone a few days in our life here at Williams-Mystic! We’re going to take you along on a few days at Mystic, and give you a special look at our NYC field seminar later this week 👀

04/01/2026

If you have a passion for history, storytelling, and Maine’s marine environments, are available this summer and are comfortable living on an island in Boothbay Harbor accessible only by boat, Maine's Department of Marine Resources is looking for you!

The DMR, in partnership with the Keepers of Burnt Island Light, is seeking two volunteers to serve as seasonal caretakers of Burnt Island Light. The selected duo will stay in the upstairs portion of the historic Burnt Island Keeper’s House, which includes private bedrooms and bathroom facilities for their use. The downstairs level serves as a public museum. For more information or to apply, email [email protected].

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEDMR/bulletins/410e9b4

03/20/2026

Greenland is in the news, but for all the wrong reasons.

For geoscientist Paul Bierman (Williams-Mystic S83 and Williams'85), the real story is all about the ice. If Greenland’s ice sheet melts, global sea levels could rise by nearly seven meters, impacting hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

On Tue, March 24, Paul joins current WM students in person (and our broader community on Zoom) for a talk connecting the dots across science, history, and climate, from ancient ecosystems hidden beneath the ice to a Cold War experiment that feels almost unbelievable. Join us online!

📅 Tuesday, March 24
⏰ 5 pm
🖥️ On Zoom for interested guests
Sign up for the Zoom link and a reminder here 👉 tinyurl.com/GreenlandIceTalk

Address

75 Greenmanville Avenue
Mystic, CT
06355

Website

https://linktr.ee/williamsmystic

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