Alumni Reflections

Attending Williams-Mystic is like getting a brand new pair of prescription glasses you didn't realize you needed. The world has never looked so bright!

Mel, Fall '22, Williams College

Although small, Williams-Mystic is in many ways larger than most study away programs. The contacts that you make both within your class and outside are remarkable. When you come back for alumni weekends you can always find someone who has shared a common experience and make a new friend.

Rob, Spring '86, Bowdoin College

If ever anyone decided to sit down and invent the ideal learning experience, Williams-Mystic is what they would come up with. Choosing to go to Mystic is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.

Laura, Fall '95, Mills College

I learned the power of listening intently to people. Of asking questions in our communities, and in the communities that we visit. Our professors placed value on our learning beyond the classroom, too. They knew—and instilled an understanding in us—that we could learn much, much more from the people and places around us than we ever possibly could from a textbook.

Hayden, Spring '19, Williams College

The Williams-Mystic program vividly demonstrated for me, for the first time in my life, the strengths and merits of approaching a problem from multiple disciplines and perspectives. My experience in the program gave me the confidence to use an integrated approach in my professional life as well as in my undergraduate and graduate studies. I credit the program with providing me with the model for integrated, interdisciplinary, multi-method inquiry that has guided both my intellectual pursuits and my work in environmental education and community studies.

Amanda, Spring '88, Williams College

Pieces of Williams-Mystic and Spring ‘22 are going to come with me wherever I go, no matter how far away from Mystic I am. Whether it’s Rónadh joking with her brother over the van walkie-talkies, cooking with my lab group at night, or my partner texting me pictures of the crabs we did our project on, my semester on Greenmanville Ave is going to stick. S’22, you have a death grip on my heart. You taught me to be adventurous, to embrace my inner weirdness, and to treat every place like it’s my classroom.

SJ, Spring '22, Williams College