But Ive been able to study it in ways I would not have imagined before. As Emily put it, Ive always thought oceans were very cool and really beautiful and just, very mysterious.. The students interest in sailing is irrelevant, Professor Labaree said, though many of them become interested in the sea because of their sailing backgrounds. Williams-Mystic has taught me how to be a better academic and about the value of real connections. Hayden grew up loving the ocean, and Williams-Mystic allowed her to take her passion to the next level. Directly adjacent to the MSC is Sturges Cottage. We had so much fun spending intentional time with another house. Around the waterfront, salt marshes and wetlands were home to an incredible diversity of species to study. We are still accepting applications for the Fall 2022 semester! Students are placed in one of five historic houses owned by Mystic Seaport, where they cook, clean, and socialize with their peers. According to a good portion of S18,Sift Bake Shop is as much of a reason as any to apply to be a Williams-Mystic student. Most of all, I will cherish the memories I made with my classmates for the rest of my life. Were learning to ask questions, lots of them: to be curious about how the world works. The Ocean and Coastal Studies Semester of Williams College and Mystic Seaport Museum. I learn so much working with Lisa. No matter your major or career aspirations, you can find a place among those at Williams-Mystic. Summer Research in Mystic: European Shore Crabs, Comb Jellyfish and Geochemistry, OhMy. Each Sunday, we ventured downtown to a new restaurant to share brunch and reflect on the past weeksomething we always looked forward to. Those moments, too, are times that change us and allow us to view the world differently. You spend that time helping, encouraging, supporting, and celebrating each other as you experience a completely new environment and developing a new appreciation for the strength of the ocean. She is particularly interested in the effects of climate change and hopes to pursue higher education in Geosciences or Oceanography. This offers you the unique opportunity to consider each topic from multiple lenses. I wanted to run on the beach and explore tidal pools. This was the most difficult part of the research. I really enjoy having long conversations with my classmates. Williams-Mystic makes it possible for students to utilize their curiosity to complete research projects that matter to them. Looking for a fun living environment, a break from dining hall food, and a chance to study with students from schools across the country? By the end of this program, the sea is something we still dont fully know. Whats so unique about this program specifically is that it tells you why the academics apply to real life, why the academics ought to be brought into life. But she is very good at guiding me and giving me hints and critiques that I always look back on and am so thankful for! The Mystic Seaport campus becomes your backyard to frolic in on the way to class, and in the evenings at sunset. Emily: Even though this is a maritime studies program, a lot of what I took from this program is actually the structure the small classes and interactions with professors, making our own research projects. Using the seaport and all its facilities and activities, the program explores man's relationship with the sea. Now, back in Mystic, we are continuing to build community. I hadnt sung at the top of my lungs to. M. leidyi are notoriously difficult to maintain in a lab, but I needed to come up with a method to keep them alive long enough to complete an experiment. And you may even find that downtown Mystic becomes a home. Since students take the same four classes: Literature of the Sea, Maritime History, Marine Policy, and either Oceanographic Processes or Marine Ecology, you and your classmates will be able to study and work together on projects. Learn more about our wonderful community at our virtual info session, TOMORROW at 8 pm EST! He had written a personal note inside each student. In 1966 he joined Mystic's summer faculty in a program financed by Cora Mallory Munson via the Munson Institute and accredited through the University of Connecticut. Those who come to us knowing how to sail spend several afternoons a week learning how to build a boat, working with the seaport shiprestoration crews and craftsmen and learning other nautical skills such as celestial navigation.. Alex participated in Williams-Mystic during the spring of his sophomore year (spring 2019), and now serves as one of Williams-Mystics alumni ambassadors. Lisa was super supportive even when it took me an entire field day to learn how to measure strike and dip (the technical and accepted way to measure the orientation of rocks). At Williams-Mystic, this is the norm. WilliamsMystic, the Ocean and Coastal Studies Semester of Williams College and Mystic Seaport Museum, is an interdisciplinary semester program based at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. Devon said being disconnected from the world outside while on the ship made him feel as though he was truly living in the moment. on Being your true self: Devon Parfaits (F18) Williams-MysticStory, on Five Reasons Why You Should Apply toWilliams-Mystic, is an introduced crab species originally from coastal Europe that was potentially brought over in the fouling or bored into a wooden ship in the 1800s. In Devons maritime history class, he researched the changing role of doctors from the 1700s through the modern era and looked at how these changes affected medical practices at sea. The whole book is meant to change the readers perceptions and has so many different hidden meanings throughout, Devon said. Professor Labaree says this approximates the cost of a semester at their own school. WilliamsMystic welcomes students from all universities. One night, time got away from me while cooking dinner, and I forgot to go to the Seaport at sunset. These alterations can directly impact local economies, negatively affecting industries such as tourism or commercial fishing. Watching them flop and swim and dive and play alongside the shipa real show. If you know nothing about Williams-Mystic, know that the 30 other people you get thrown together with, students and faculty alike, become your family for a semester. For the Moby-Dick paper, I definitely tried to organize it too much at the beginning, Devon said. Hayden Gillooly is one of our student bloggers for Spring 2019. You can go in and relax and work and have a good time.. Q: Whats your relationship with the oceans and coasts like now that youve been through the semester? Most colleges transfer students scholarship aid to the program. The entire staff spent their time making our time at the program as magical as possible, dealing with the bureaucracy of our home institutions or settling our personal issues to ensure we could focus on being engaged. Later while on night watch, we went onto the bowsprit again and were read a passage of. Also, I've taught sailing for several summers and I'm looking forward to what I'll learn here from the craftsmen., Women students slightly outnumber the men at Mystic. I had yet to have long van conversations while riding along the coast, feeling so heard and seen by the people around me. Heck, there were over 100 alien-like creatures in one Petri dish from a sample we took last night. Im transferring schools to Vanderbilt, which doesnt have an environmental studies program, only environmental science or environmental sociology majors. The area that I have been studying is Avery Point, Connecticut on the University of Connecticut Avery Points campus. I ran out of the van in a pouring thunderstorm with Stephen and Lisa at Grand Isle Beach to collect seashells for our science project. Emily: Before, I definitely did just see the ocean as a place and a mystery. Although there are many different crabs found in this rocky intertidal ecosystem, the shoreline is dominated by C. maenas. I wanted to travel with my classmates and learn while doing. I found my passion for my work at Williams-Mystic, but I also found a new passion for life and I made some lifelong connections. All of the field seminars were absolutely incredible, and I felt so safe and comfortable traveling with Williams-Mystic, Devon said. Devon chose to research coastal erosion at the Barn Island salt marshes and in the Mystic River Estuary. I am a Spanish major at Williams College and have always loved the sea. We had the unique opportunity to learn maritime skills from experts, crafting metal objects in the smiths forge or learning maritime songs with professional chantey singers. I felt like a little kid on Christmas, eager to embark on our journey. Each classmate brings a different perspective from their respective discipline to each class and field seminar. This stillness is incomparable. I think I shall hold this moment in my pocket, and take it out whenever I need a smile. Some of them will be classmates of yours others will be individuals, from professional mariners and scientists to ordinary people, who choose to share their stories with Williams-Mystic students each semester. The goal was to help create policy recommendations that would allow lessees to better define the environmental justice communities they work with using a combination oftools that are available, Devon said. They'll become housewives and teachers and journalists, Mr. Carew said with a laugh. I learned how to compromise when our expectations differed, but we made it work anyway. I learned about trees from Henry, power poses from Charlotte and the origin of the Kermit the Frog Memes from Dayana. And in this town, it is Mystic-al (I know, cheesy pun). She is a sophomore at Williams College, studying Spanish with a concentration in Maritime Studies. In the Pacific Northwest, Devon did not feel the need to worry about food and traveling; he felt like he could enjoy the experience with his classmates. While the program has inevitably evolved since 1977, talking with alums has shown me that this Williams-Mystics transformative magic has remained the same. These issues may include studying indigenous rights, sea-level rise, and how biodiversity is impacted by climate change. Hayden Gillooly is a junior at Williams College majoring in Geosciences with a concentration in Maritime Studies. Send us a message at wmadmissions@williams.edu to hear directly from an admissions representative! And more often than sometimes, we end up having philosophical chats that leave me feeling rejuvenated and excited about the word. Johnston House- resembles Carr House in footprint and layout, with the exception of a garage that houses the program's bicycle fleet. This relationship is usually easier to achieve at a smaller campus.. Random quotes and summaries of the chapters filled the boards in Carlton [the James T. Carlton Marine Science Center].. Additionally, a group of invasive organisms can alter an ecosystems characteristics and local populations of native species. What can this program provide you that you cannot get at your home institution? And quite honestly, I dont want to imagine a life without my Williams-Mystic family and roots. At Williams-Mystic, youll come to understand that we all bring something different to the table, and that having representation from the voices of all disciplines is essential in order to tackle the worlds most pressing issues. Included was this quote by Rachel Carson: If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength., As we sailed off the coast of Puerto Rico for our ten-day Offshore Field Seminar aboard the. Our alarms would go off early in the morning, and wed shuttle our big Williams-Mystic duffle bags downstairs together. I ran down Bruggeman Place and through the Seaport, catching the tail-end of a fiery sky. During a semester at Williams-Mystic, your house on Bruggeman Place becomes a home, and your small class a family. Or ran and jumped with my classmates on a beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana during a rainstorm. (Above) Artie Claudio (F19) works in the shipsmiths shop during maritime skills class. I decided to come to Mystic because I was craving an immersive, hands-on, full-wonder type of learning. And at the end of each day, youll go home with your classmates and cook in the kitchen while jamming to music and laughing. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. The Cane is pretty touristy now and has lost its maritime flavor. Nearly every night, regardless of what I am in the middle of, I head to the Seaport to watch the day come to a close. If the houses begin to feel a bit too cozy, the MSC provides students with a 24-hour research and study space, fully outfitted with computers, books, couches, desks, and a state-of-the-art marine science laboratory. Alex: I agree with you completely. I learned how to do research. Mrs. Munson's portrait dominates the classroom where students face each other across long tables in the seaport's library building. Here are five such experiences: During your undergraduate career, it is very rare to have the chance to produce one in-depth research project on a topic of your choosing, let alone four. In between the cracks of engaging classes, working on research projects and meeting with professors, there is time for leisure. There are impeding dark clouds approaching on either side, enveloping the pink and blue hues.