For the past decade, the Greylock Talks program has brought speakers across many topics and issues to Mount Greylock to give students a deeper understanding of the world beyond the Berkshires. Over the years, talks have covered a variety of topics, from climate change to nutrition to cell phone use.
The most recent Greylock Talk, organized by the Student Council, occurred on February 28 and featured speaker Noah Savage, a Mount Greylock alumnus from the Class of 2016.
Mount Greylock senior Caleb Low and junior Polly Rhie invited Savage to speak based on a suggestion from fellow Mount Greylock student – and Noah’s sister – Celina Savage.
Low said he was excited to invite Savage because of his “experiences traveling the world, his unique stories, photographs and experiences about the vast world around us.”
According to Savage, he was eager to share about his travels because they didn’t follow the norm of college and then straight into a job, and he felt the alternate plan might be inspiring to some attendees.
Low agreed. “We really liked the fact that Noah, after graduating from college, was able to show us a path of exploration and growth that was unknown to most of the people attending the talk.”
During the talk, Savage spoke about the Chandler Fellowship he was granted by Williams College to travel the world and explore the concept of home after graduating. According to Savage, home is “a state of mind and acceptance.” He wanted to “provoke interesting conversations about what home means in Williamstown as opposed to what it means in other parts of the world.”
Low said Savage was successful in conveying this message. “[Attendees’] conversations of ‘home’ made them think about their communities, living environments and what links them together in a meaningful way.”
In addition to encouraging Greylock Talks participants to think critically about the idea of home, Savage also “told stories of the countries he visited…to inspire people to travel the world,” Low said.
For many attendees, it was exciting to see and hear about what life after Mount Greylock could look like. Low said, “The world is a crazy and diverse place, and being able to explore the world, in whichever field of study you are interested in, is such an exciting prospect.”
The Greylock Talks series will continue on April 4th with Williams College sophomore Sneha Revanur. Revanur is the founder and president of Encode Justice, an AI activism non-profit, and she was recently named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in AI.”
