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Williams-Mystic

@williamsmystic

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A college semester of interdisciplinary ocean & coastal studies in Mystic, CT @williamscollege & @mysticseaportmuseum

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How do you even begin to explain a semester of Williams-Mystic? 🌊

This past year, students, alumni and filmmaker @filmsbycaleb helped us reimagine how to introduce WM to future students—and we’re beyond excited to share the results! 🎥✨

🎬 Watch this brief video for a glimpse into the joy, adventure and discovery that makes Williams-Mystic unforgettable.

Huge thanks to F24 for sharing your golden fall, S25 for lending your voices, our incredible faculty, staff and skills instructors, and the alumni & friends helped stepped in to bring this vision to life. And of course, a special shoutout to Caleb for making the magic happen! 💙

If this feels like the right place for you, we can’t wait to meet you at Williams-Mystic. The fall 2025 early action deadline is March 17, and spring 2026 early action deadline is June 2!
mystic.williams.edu taken in Williams-Mystic by @williamsmystic

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2 years ago

First day of Marine Ecology class, and straight to the Mystic River!

Fall 2026 Williams-Mystic students surveyed a submerged line at the site of a new living shoreline at the Mystic River Boathouse Park, home of the newly opened Stonington Community Rowing Center, searching for ribbed mussels before the line is moved into newly planted marsh grass, Spartina.

The two organisms make good coastal neighbors: Spartina gives the mussels shade and habitat, while mussels add nutrients to the sediment and help hold the mud around the grass roots in place. This mutualistic relationship can help a new salt marsh get established. taken in Mystic River by @williamsmystic

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23 days ago

Williams-Mystic students have the option to take on a paid student job during their semester here, and one that’s always popular is working in the Henry B. DuPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport Museum. Take a look at early morning shifts at the shipyard with S96 student, Leah! taken in Mystic Seaport Museum by @williamsmystic

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25 days ago

"Well-rounded is too pale a term for Maile Rachel Hale," began her official New York Times obituary, written twenty-five years ago by a Williams-Mystic alum journalist. "Her heart was in dancing: ballet and, later, modern. She was a chemistry major in college. And at 26, she was the chief operating officer and vice president of Boston Investor Services, overseeing the management of billions of dollars."

On Sept. 11, 2001, Maile was in New York for a conference, beginning that morning with a breakfast at Windows on the World, and died in the terrorist attacks.

Maile was a Williams-Mystic student in the fall of 1995, a shy Wesleyan chemistry major from Hawaii with a love of chocolate and dance. With her class, she traveled offshore on Atlantic waters, ventured to the rapidly disappearing island of Nantucket (where she participated in the WM Student Erosion Index, an unofficial measurement of Nantucket's shifting shores) and was in the second WM group to travel cross-country on a field seminar to California.

Today, a bench by the river at Mystic Seaport Museum honors her, and the thousands of other 9/11 victims, with a plaque reading, "We shall never forget the beauty of life and those lost and injured on that day." by @williamsmystic

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a month ago

New students arrive next week, which means it’s time to pass along the Williams-Mystic wisdom! Alums, tell us what you wish you knew on the first day!

What’s worth doing at least once? Best walk, beach, coffee stop, thrift shop, rainy-day activity, or local adventure? And check out the stories for more questions, thank you, alumni! by @williamsmystic

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a month ago

Providence, it's your turn for a WM alumni swizzle!

Williams-Mystic alumni, family and friends are warmly invited for a September sunset cruise on Rhode Island's Upper Narragansett Bay with Save The Bay. We’ll spend an hour on the water exploring some of the most pressing climate issues facing the bay, and how its natural history and geology have shaped the communities, industries, and policies along its coastline.

Our guides include Katy Robinson Hall S84, Save The Bay’s staff attorney, along with members of Save The Bay’s science and policy team. And yes, there will be WM snack onboard!

RSVP at mystic.williams.edu/providenceswizzle

📅 Thursday, September 24
⏰ 5:15 PM check-in and departure
📍 Save The Bay Center at Fields Point, Providence, RI
🎟️ $20 per person
💧 BYO reusable water bottle

After the cruise, gather for an optional gathering at a nearby brewery to keep the conversation going over food and drinks.

Hosted by WM alumni Christopher Riely S99, Katy Robinson Hall S84, and Williams-Mystic. Family and friends are very welcome. Parking and detailed directions will be shared upon RSVP. by @williamsmystic

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2 months ago

Ready to compete for glory? LAST CALL to sign up for the annual WM Fantasy Football League, open to WM alumni and friends who love touchdowns, trash talk and supporting WM.

WM Fantasy Commish Tim Pusack, also known as the WM Marine Ecology prof, has announced four remaining spots, will you be victorious this year? Sign up by August 26, draft to be scheduled when roster is complete!

mystic.williams.edu/wm-fantasy-football/ by @williamsmystic

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2 months ago

Fall 2026, it's less than a month before you arrive in Mystic, and as you can see, we're all looking forward to your arrival! by @williamsmystic

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2 months ago

Join Williams-Mystic faculty, staff, alumni and friends for a happy hour potluck swizzle at Williams-Mystic on Wednesday, August 5 from 5 to 7 pm. Enjoy snacks, drinks, lawn games and good company at this summertime swizzle.

Bring a snack or libation to share (sign up in the RSVP).

Want to get out on the water or check out the latest at Mystic Seaport Museum? Arrive early to take a trip on Sabino (ticket purchased separately), captain a rowboat, sailboat or paddle boat from the Boathouse (free with admission; closes at 4pm). While you're here, don't forget to check out the new Brickwrecks Lego exhibit.

Has your Mystic Seaport membership lapsed? Support WM's home campus by becoming a member today, and recieve free admission and special opportunities all year!

RSVP here! Family and friends welcome, too.
➡ tinyurl.com/WMSummer26 by @williamsmystic

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3 months ago

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4 months ago

Williams '1s and 6s, we'll see you at the beach on Saturday, June 13! (Ok, the beach is at the Class of '66 Environmental Center at Williams, but our beach game is strong, as you can see from these photos of last year's event.)

We're back at Reunion 2026 with live sea critters, an inflatable palm tree and, of course, the official Williams-Mystic cornhole set. And new this year, we've teamed up with Environmental Studies for a dual open house, from 1 to 3:45 pm. Stop by for a land or sea mocktail, and participate in our Community Field Notes art project! by @williamsmystic

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4 months ago

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 in bio. by @williamsmystic

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4 months ago