Just before leaving to begin last summer's internship at Glacier National Park in Montana, Williams College student Matt Wibbenmeyer '07 received an email from one of the park rangers with whom he would be working with for the next few months. Wibbenmeyer was touched by both the warmth and enthusiasm of the note, which spoke of the ranger's own experience as an intern just a few years earlier.
"The naturalist correctly forecasted the love for Glacier that working as a park interpreter has caused in me," Wibbenmeyer wrote in his evaluation of the summer. "Whether or not I come back to Glacier National Park to work sometime in the future, I will remember and value the growth I have achieved here."
Wibbenmeyer was one of 123 Williams students who participated last summer in Williams College Alumni Sponsored Internships across the country and around the globe. In fields as diverse as art and politics, health and economics, students spent eight weeks gaining first-hand experience in a selected project or career.
The program is made possible annually by a number of generous grants that support the students' experiences with up to $3,200 of funding.
Uzaib Saya '08 spent his summer at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Changing responsibilities almost weekly allowed Saya to shadow doctors as they responded to different health issues in the rural village of Rehri Goth.
Saya also worked closely with organizations dealing with problems of prenatal care, family planning, and substance abuse. "Overall, the experience at the clinic at Rehri Goth was unbelievable because of its uniqueness and my opportunity to be closely involved with doctors and public health specialists and researchers," Saya said.
Christina Perron '07, found her internship at Boston's United South End Settlements "challenging, frustrating, but ultimately extremely rewarding." The organization mentors adolescent girls in challenging life circumstances.
Perron provided skill-building opportunities in the arts while also helping a homeless teen in her transition to independent living. She said that the program, in general, and the communication skills she learned, in particular, was a great skill-building opportunity for her, too.
Last summer offered Nontombi Kraai '09 a chance to work in HIV/AIDS education at YMCA Botswana. Kraai learned the importance of grass-roots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in dealing with HIV/AIDS, especially in the counseling of teen mothers and in helping youths struggling with the virus.
Brenda Perry '07 divided her summer into two different education-related internships, one shadowing an elementary school principal and the other working with children in a special needs summer school program. Her time with the principal confirmed her career. "This is it!" she wrote. "I experienced so much of the profession that I now know it is right for me. This internship was priceless," Perry said.
The Alumni Sponsored Internships' goal is to provide funding for Williams students to experience an educational and personally-fulfilling challenge by working with professionals in a variety of fields.
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Discrimination Against Muslim Americans Persists 25 Years After 9/11
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Dozens of Muslim Americans were among people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Untold numbers of Muslim Americans have suffered countless acts of discrimination in their aftermath.
"Of course, you'll find several accounts of Muslims from all over the U.S. describing how they went from the unknown kids in the school to being stereotyped or ridiculed for their Muslim names," Sidra Mahmood recalled recently. "However, many Americans forget that the victims of 9/11 were also Muslim Americans.
"I can't forget the time when a classmate broke down in sobs when 9/11 came up in our classroom at the Islamic seminary I went to in Texas, because her father's best friend who was like an uncle to her, died on 9/11."
Today, Mahmood is a chaplain at Williams College. In 2001, she was growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists forced two passenger jets into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and another plane into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A third plane, which terrorists hoped to crash into a D.C. landmark, was brought down in western Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.
The attacks, which ultimately claimed 2,976 lives, horrified people around the world, including in Mahmood's native land.
"I remember being aghast like anyone who witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers in real time," she said. "However, even as a child, fear gripped me about the possibility of war, especially once we learned that Afghanistan, right adjacent to Pakistan, would be attacked by the U.S. My mother had told me about the 1971 war between India and Pakistan when she remembered hiding in the dark after bomb sirens would go off in Punjab after intentional blackouts.
Dozens of Muslim Americans were among people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Untold numbers of Muslim Americans have suffered countless acts of discrimination in their aftermath.
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