Class of ‘73 pre-reunion events

Apr
13

Pre-Reunion Info-Zoom

If all went as planned, you received a registration packet for our 50th during the past few days.  There's a lot going on - the core 50th team of Tom Geissler, Marta Rudolph, Robert Koegel and Charlotte Neuville has planned an interesting and fun weekend chock-a-block with activities, all outlined in the registration packet.

But you might have questions - or just want to learn more. So we're having an 'open mic' Zoom session this Thursday, April 13th at 6:00 pm Eastern time.  The link is below. Please join for an overview and an opportunity to discuss things like our panel discussion on the environment and our generational legacy, bike rides, the memorial service or what music you want to dance to.

Hope to see you Thursday

The 50th Team

https://gsb-columbia-edu.zoom.us/j/99859200597

Meeting ID: 998 5920 0597

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Having A Practice and a Path: Reflections on Meditation Practice, with Instruction
Feb
28

Having A Practice and a Path: Reflections on Meditation Practice, with Instruction

The illustrious Class of ‘74 invites us to join them…
Three ’74 classmates have decades of experience practicing and teaching Buddhist meditation practice. This program will share how their meditation experience has shaped their lives, and will include a period of meditation instruction and practice with time for engagement and discussion. 

o Larry Peltz, M.D., is a psychiatrist specializing in mindfulness and addiction recovery. He has practiced meditation in the Theravadan/Vipassana tradition since 1986.   

o Chuck Mitchell a lawyer in private practice including trust and estate administration and litigation, general litigation including employment issues, and commercial litigation and real estate transactions. He has practiced meditation in the Quaker tradition since 1958 and in the Vipassana tradition since 2000.

o Ken Kessel is a clinical social worker specializing in infant mental health and general clinical work. He has been practicing in the Kwan Um School of Zen since 1975 and is a Zen Master in that lineage.

Where: Via Zoom. Free, but pre-registration is required – click here. When you sign up, you'll receive an email from Williams with a personalized link to join the session on February 28. Please do not forward your personalized link for others to use; each person or household needs to sign up (and you can do so until just before the session begins), but please feel free to publicize this program to ’73 and ‘75 friends and family.

Questions? Contact me or Darlene Alderman in the Williams Milestone Reunion Program Office.

The program will be recorded for later viewing.

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Zoom with Bill Simon - Financial Bubbles
Jan
23

Zoom with Bill Simon - Financial Bubbles

Hello ’73 classmates -

Winter Study starts on the Williams campus Jan. 3. We have an opportunity to get in on the educational fun on Monday evening, Jan. 23 when Bill Simon ’73 will give a Zoom presentation to our class summarizing his UCLA course on financial bubbles. We’ll learn about bubbles from Tulip mania in Holland in the 1630’s to more recent ones, presumably including crypto.

Bill teaches a number of courses at UCLA, and co-founded the Benjamin Graham Value Investing Program, a concentration for undergraduates considering a career in finance. He has real world experience too, including having been the chair of the Williams College Board of Trustee’s Budget Committee during the economic meltdown of ’08.

Bill also teaches a Winter Study course on leadership at Williams, and will be speaking to us from Williamstown. So please join us and return to the days of Winter Study this January by marking your calendar and signing up at the link below! Registering is required to participate. The event will start at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Jan. 23 and, between Bill’s presentation and time for questions and discussion, will probably run about 90 minutes.

   Phil Dodd for the 50th Reunion Committeee

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Pre-Reunion Gathering for '73 women
Sep
13

Pre-Reunion Gathering for '73 women

Calling all Williams ‘73 women - for a Pre 50th reunion gathering for those living near Southern Maine. (Or who happen to be traveling near Southern Maine.)

Lunch BYOS (bring your own sandwich)
I’ll provide beverages and a few sides. Noon to whenever

Hosted by Mary Schendel
24 Hillside Ave.
Cumberland, Maine
RSVP: mschendelwms@gmail.com - 207-415-9917 (cell)

Several of us who live locally have numerous extra beds for any who want to make this an overnight. Just let us know if this is of interest. Partners and spouses welcome.

CLICK HERE for printable flyer

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Happiness Lab
Apr
27

Happiness Lab

Happy? - Sometimes? Often? Rarely? Always?

Here's a chance to learn more about happiness.

Robb Rutledge, Ph.D., is a cognitive neuroscientist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University. He’s also the son of our classmate Dave Rutledge and his wife Dale Yee.

Robb’s lab at Yale combines computational models, neuroimaging, and data collected from thousands of people around the world playing simple smartphone games including in their newest app, Happiness Quest, to explore the links between the decisions we make and what determines our happiness.

Feelings of happiness and sadness are central to conscious experience, but we still know little about what happens in the brain when we have these feelings or how these feelings relate to the events in our lives. Notably, Robb developed a mathematical equation for happiness that explains the role that expectations have in how we feel.

Among the posts on his Psychology Today blog are intriguing topics such as “Why Learning – Not Rewards – May Be the Key to Happiness” and “Would You Be Happier if You Lowered Your Expectations?” The Lab has also published articles such as “Why Do We Make Risky Decisions?” and one with a degree of pertinence to ’73: “Do Older People Take Fewer Risks?”, which posits that as we age, the dopamine in our brain gradually declines, possibly explaining a reduction in our willingness to take risks for potential rewards.

The Rutledge lab has developed the smartphone app Happiness Quest so that anyone can contribute to its research. If you’d like to participate in Robb’s work on happiness – and have fun while doing it – check out the lab’s mobile app and play a few games https://www.happinessquest.app/

Please join us on Wednesday, April 27th at 5:00 Eastern.

Register here:
https://williams.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwsceispjooHdEmqDjEbK1yTLQ1scrspRHZ

After you register and near the date, you’ll get a Zoom link and a reminder. Robb’s also agreed to allow recording for later viewing by classmates who can’t make the session.

Thanks in advance to Robb for a talk you won’t want to miss.

Steve
hartystephen@hotmail.com

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