Williams College Senior Wins Watson Fellowship

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College senior Emma Mandel has been named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow for 2019-20. Winners of the fellowship receive a stipend of $30,000 for 12 months of independent study and travel outside of the United States. 

Mandel joins 40 other students selected as Watson Fellows who hail from six countries and 18 states. Selected from private liberal arts colleges and universities, Watson Fellows will travel the world exploring a diverse range of topics and disciplines. 

"A record number of students initiated this year's application process," said Watson Foundation Executive Director Chris Kasabach. "The new class is remarkable. They reflect the diversity, imagination and cross-disciplinary nature of our next-generation leaders."

Mandel, an English and theatre studies major from Brooklyn, N.Y., will use the fellowship to pursue a project titled "Beyond Language: Exploring Female Experience Through Theatrical Expression." Her project aims to explore how theatre can be used to articulate the struggles of women in areas where words are censored, suppressed, or inadequate to the task of describing the experience of oppression. 

"I became interested in the project because how, why, and when we allow women to speak seemed to be a line of questioning that emerged organically for me from studying English and drama, and being involved in making theater, be it as an actor or a director," says Mandel, who did an internship in summer 2017 at Target Margin Theater in Brooklyn, N.Y. "I worked with veterans who had never done theater before, an experience which made me think about how theater might allow people, especially women, to articulate traumatic experiences that don’t often find expression in everyday life."

Mandel's research will take her to France, Morocco, South Africa, Israel and Palestine, where she plans to explore how women use social theatre to come to terms with their experiences. 

"I'm excited by the potential to be able to observe and hopefully connect with theatrical communities that, as someone who has lived entirely within the Western world, I can’t even really imagine," Mandel said. "Mostly, I'm just very excited by the possibility of listening to women's stories and being inspired by the theatre that they make."

BCC Sees $1M in Federal Funds for Trades Academy

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:15PM / Thursday, April 09, 2026

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal secured $995,000 to begin design and construction of the academy. The congressman had earlier attended the Norman Rockwell Museum business breakfast, which celebrated Laurie Norton Moffatt's 49 years leading the institution.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Community College was awarded nearly $1 million in federal funds to support a Trades Academy. 

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal visited the college to highlight the $995,000 he secured through congressionally directed spending. Executive Director of Workforce and Community Education Linda Clairmont said BCC can be a destination for adults who want to learn a skilled trade. 

"I want to join up with the amazing work that Taconic and McCann (vocational high schools) are doing to prepare people for these really specific skills, helping people become confident professionals with a direct path to high-wage, high-demand jobs," she explained. 

"And we're also addressing the labor shortage that exists in this county, around the state, and around the country, in the skilled trades." 

The federal funding will support a feasibility study of an existing vacant building on campus, as well as the evaluation and abatement of any hazardous materials at the location, because it was once a power plant. 

BCC will dip its toe into the skilled trades with its first HVAC training program, for which it received $1.2 million from the state in support. The $995,000 in federal funds will go toward creating the academy in a building located on the main campus, and the HVAC heat pump training program will be funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. 

The $1 million in federal monies will get the college to construction documents, maybe fund some construction, and help identify the necessary equipment and other learning space needs for a skilled trade, Clairmont reported. 

The funding is part of more than $14 million in congressionally directed spending secured by the congressman to support economic development, workforce training, and community infrastructure across the Berkshires.

Neal said there are about 6.5 million jobs in the United States that go unanswered every day.