Williams-Mystic

Williams-Mystic:

The Ocean and Coastal Studies Semester of Williams College and Mystic Seaport Museum

Rigging and detailed carvings from boats at Mystic Seaport

The Williams-Mystic Davis Center Ambassador 

The role of this ambassador is to build relationships and collaborations with the faculty, staff, and students who work within the Davis Center. This Williams-Mystic ambassador, as well as the two other Williams-Mystic ambassadors, is tasked with working on small strategic projects as well as a semester or year-long project with the goal of connecting more Williams students with Williams-Mystic. The ambassadors also help connect students to other parts of the Williams College community that can enhance their experiences and help them find belonging on campus.

Photograph of Devon Parfait in early fall in front of Mount Greylock
Devon Parfait '22: Williams-Mystic Ambassador

Devon Parfait ‘22 is a geoscience major and participated in Williams-Mystic in the fall of 2018. He decided to do Williams-Mystic when he was going through community college and trying to apply to Williams. It was an opportunity for him to prove he could handle the Williams academic rigor and further his education both through the program and with a pathway into higher education. He also wanted to diversify his life experience and explore the country in a proactive way. He was hoping Williams-Mystic could give him the interdisciplinary education and life experiences he would need to become a change-maker in his tribal community back home. He ended up with a much more fulfilling and transformational semester than he could have ever hoped for, and is now using the many academic and life skills he got from the program to benefit his community through advocacy and research.

Devon's project for this semester is to create informative posters about how Williams-Mystic, as an interdisciplinary program, fits into many different majors at Williams. The aim of this project is to collaborate and build relationships with the various departments to educate and inform the Williams community about Williams-Mystic's wide variety of educational opportunities.

To learn more about the Williams-Mystic program, click here to access the webite