Williams Economics Major Named Global Citizen Finalist

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Will Turett, an economics major of Williams College and native resident of Irvington, N.Y., has been honored as a finalist for the IES Abroad Global Citizen of the Year Award. 

The IES Abroad Global Citizen of the Year Award is the first student-focused study abroad award of its kind, recognizing six U.S college students who studied with IES Abroad in 2017, positively impacted their communities through academic, philanthropic, or personal efforts while abroad, learned from their cross-cultural experience, and continued to better their communities, at home and abroad.

Through internships abroad with the European Environmental Bureau and European Forum Alpbach, Turett invested his translation and research skills and was able to partake in once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to share knowledge globally. 

One winner from Grinnell College, Yesenia Ayala, and four other finalists - from Loyola University of Chicago, University of California-Berkeley, Villanova University and Yale University - join Turell as the next generation of global leaders as part of the 2017 Global Citizen of the Year Award. 

IES Abroad is a not-for-profit organization providing access to 140 study abroad and internship programs in 34 cities around the world. IES Abroad received inspiring submissions from its students across more than 30 different U.S. colleges, such as Williams College, University of California- Berkeley, and Yale University, to name a few.

As part of their applications, student winners shared a range of meaningful contributions and anecdotes, such as working with students from low-income communities in Santiago, translating documents to support the work of an environmental bureau in Vienna, volunteering with a nutritional health organization in Buenos Aires, and bringing attention to the individual stories of women in Spain and Morocco.

As the winner of the Global Citizen of the Year Award, Ayala will receive a $1,000 cash prize, and the five finalists will each receive a $200 cash prize.

Lanesborough Officials Review Schools' Budgets

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:49AM / Thursday, April 09, 2026

Mount Greylock Superintendent Joseph Bergeron, left, addresses the Lanesborough Select Board and Finance Committee as School Committee member Curtis Elfenbein looks at the projection of a slide in the district's budget presentation.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Town officials Monday appeared generally receptive to the fiscal year 2027 spending plans for the two public school districts that serve the town.

 

Superintendents from the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District (McCann Technical School) and Mount Greylock Regional School District presented their respective FY27 budgets to a joint meeting of the town's Finance Committee and Select Board.

 

Both districts are sending significantly higher assessments for approval at Lanesborough's annual town meeting in June.

 

McCann Tech, which constituted a $317,109 expenditure for the town in the current fiscal year, is seeking $463,978 for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 even though the school's operating budget is up just 3.2 percent year to year.

 

The 46 percent increase in Lanesborough's share of McCann Tech's budget is is due to two factors: a rise in enrollment of town residents at the vocational school from 20 in 2025 to 29 in this school year and a capital assessment for the first round of payments — for interest only — for a roof and window replacement project on the North Adams campus.

 

The Mount Greylock assessment, a much larger component of Lanesborough's property tax bill, is up 10.99 percent from FY26 to FY27, from $6.8 million to $7.6 million.

 

Mount Greylock Superintendent Joseph Bergeron gave a budget presentation similar to one he has delivered twice to the district's School Committee and again last month to the Williamstown Finance Committee, explaining that while the FY27 budget maintains level services to students with a net reduction of three positions, a series of factors are driving much larger assessments to Mount Greylock's two member towns.