By Katie Lang ’18 A new trail has opened in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains — in late November, after years of work, Nelson County opened the Blue Ridge Tunnel, a mid-19th century railroad tunnel as a trail for the public to enjoy. Before this rail trail opened to the public, the William & Mary Structural Geology […]

The post Light at the End of the Tunnel: Geological Research at Crozet’s Blue Ridge Tunnel appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

By Elizabeth Ashley ’21 This semester I was given the incredible opportunity to create William & Mary’s first-ever Sustainable Living Guide! It’s been a fantastic journey, being able to work closely with sustainability topics while collecting information that I know will help others in the long run – two of my most favorite things. However, […]

The post Effective Communication: The Key to Fixing the Climate Crisis appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

Those who know me personally know I love to read. I once created a Facebook album (back when those were a thing) just of photos of me reading. Early in the pandemic, I even recreated some classic book covers with whatever I could find around my house. So when we decided that one of OCE’s […]

The post Fall 2020 Book Report appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

By Katie Cullen ’22 ‘Tis the season of holiday and merriment. Holiday decorations and Christmas music are increasingly seeping into the streets and stores and car radios. It is an exciting time as we wrapped up with finals and transition to a more relaxing break from the stresses of school. I, for one, am looking […]

The post The Sustainable Gift Giving Guide appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

As the holiday season approaches it is very apparent things will be different. For the first time since Covid began, I was admittedly worried and a little frustrated with how things were going. It’s incredibly selfish but I wanted a normal holiday, to see my family, eat my favorite foods, and have a sense of […]

The post An Unusual Holiday Season appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

By Mary Lawrence Young ’21 When I first began school at William & Mary, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to conduct my own independent research, let alone have my research published in a local journal. However, over the past year, I have worked with faculty members from various departments to develop an […]

The post The World is Your Oyster: The Historical Sustainability of the Chesapeake Oyster Fishery appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

Gabe Mojica ’21 Soapstone. What is it you might ask? No, it isn’t used for bathing, or at least not in the way you might imagine. Soapstone is a metamorphic rock that is composed primarily of the mineral talc – one of the softest minerals in the world. Soapstone’s softness allows it to be easily […]

The post The Soapstone Special appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

Admit It! It may be hard to believe, but our first Early Decision deadline is less than one month away! Here in Williamsburg, the leaves are just starting to change and our community is welcoming the fall weather and activities. Our staff members have been busy virtually travelling to high schools all across the country, […]

The post Fall Weather, Applications, and FAFSA! Oh My! appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

How do I tell the story of five Office of Community Engagement colleagues reading bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress? I can tell you that the setting was a weekly Zoom discussion, sometimes infiltrated by the sounds of air conditioners and flashes of ‘UNSTABLE INTERNET CONNECTION.’ The story takes place in 2020 in the midst of a […]

The post Learning to Transgress appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

Hello World! I’m Professor Chuck Bailey and this is the inaugural post for the William & Mary Structural Geology & Tectonics Research Group. Our group consists primarily of undergraduate researchers working on original research projects, and in the coming months these students will highlight their research findings in this blog. The objective is to communicate […]

The post The Chaos of Rocks appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

By Margaret Donnan ’22 My name is Margaret Donnan, and I spent my summer investigating the relationship between the longhorned milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus) and the common milkweed plant (Asclepias syriaca). Common milkweed is an essential food source for the caterpillars of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). Unfortunately, there are immediate concerns about the decline in […]

The post Portable Greenhouses, Beetle Matchmaking, & Investigating Plant-Insect Relationships appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

By Katie Spofford ’22 In spring 2020, William & Mary students again participated in Diplomacy Lab, “a public-private partnership that enables the State Department to ‘course-source’ research related to foreign policy challenges by harnessing the efforts of students and faculty experts at colleges and universities across the United States” (State Department). Under the direction of the […]

The post U.S. State Department, Reves Center, and GRI Bring the World to W&M and W&M to the World appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

By Bilen Zerie ’23 Planning a Research Itinerary in South Africa When I first received notice that I had been selected as a GRI Summer Fellow, I had a very different idea of what my summer would look like. I was paired as a faculty fellow with Professor Zvobgo, whom I have been working under […]

The post Field Work in South Africa? COVID-19 Had Other Plans, but IJL Continued to Make Progress appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

When Spring 20202 abruptly got cut short, I comforted in the fact that Fall 2020 would be better and back to normal. The threat of coronavirus would be a thing of the past, and I would return to worrying about what to wear to the next ball, which coffee shop to go to that day, […]

The post Return to St Andrews: Quarantine Edition appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

By Emma Rebour ’21 When I first set foot on William & Mary’s campus in the fall of 2018, I had no idea what my experience at the university would entail. The only thing I knew for certain was that I was passionate about environmental science and wanted to get involved in any sustainability organization I […]

The post Climate Action Partnership with UVA for a 2030 Carbon Neutrality Goal appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

For the last five months I have been working to make sustainable anti-racism changes in my life. Having read a lot of internet lists about actions to take, one item that stood out was banking locally and with Black-owned banks. Here was something I could do to put my financial power to good use, and […]

The post Money Matters appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

By Sophie Pittaluga ’23 Sustainability is a vast concept used to describe anything from the environment, to development, to lifestyle habits, and more. Since the word is used so frequently, it can be difficult to give it a single definition. But ultimately, sustainability is built on the interactions between three elements: the environment, society, and […]

The post Understanding the Breadth of Sustainability appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.

This post is jointly written by William & Mary bloggers Caroline Prout ’22 and Bryn DePaul ’22.  Getting involved at William & Mary and St Andrews is easy to do because there are many activities and clubs that cater to every kind of interest! People always recommend trying new things in college, and we definitely took […]

The post Collaborative Blog with Caroline and Bryn: Getting Involved and Trying New Things appeared first on The William & Mary Blogs.