Students named Philip J. Otis Fellows

Bates College sophomores Matthew Ensner of Asheville, N.C., and Takeshi Miyamoto of Tokyo, Japan, have been named Philip J. Otis Fellows and will receive $5,000 grants for research and travel to promote greater understanding of environmental issues and the connection between the environment and spirituality.

Before spending August 1998 in Alaska’s Denali National Forest, where he will document his back-country experiences in photographs and writing, Ensner will complete photography and writing workshops at the Creative Photographic Arts Center in Lewiston and the Rockport Art Institute in Rockport, Maine. Upon returning from Alaska, Ensner will complete a month-long nature and environment photography workshop at the Rockport Art Institute. His project will conclude with a portfolio presentation and lecture to the Bates College community in October 1998.

Miyamoto will climb Alaska’s Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak at 20,320 feet, in June 1998. He also will conduct interviews with area Native American Indians and mountaineers who have climbed Mount McKinley — also known as Denali — to determine how the mountain and the act of “conquering” the peak have influenced the native culture and religion. Miyamoto’s project will conclude with a portfolio presentation and lecture to the Bates College community in September 1998.

Ensner, an environmental studies major with a secondary concentration in French, has been co-coordinator for the Bates College Environmental Coalition. A 1996 graduate of Asheville High School, he is the son of Amy Edwards and Mark Ensner of Asheville, N.C.

Miyamoto has been a rock-climbing instructor at Bates for new-student orientation trips. A graduate of Deerfield (Mass.) Academy, he is the son of Iwao and Yoko Miyamoto of Tokyo, Japan.

Established in 1996 by Margaret V.B. and C. Angus Wurtele, the Philip J. Otis Endowment commemorates their son, Philip, a member of the Bates class of 1995, who died attempting to rescue an injured climber on Mount Rainier in August 1995. Otis was deeply concerned about nurturing a sense of responsibility for the natural environment, and the endowment sponsors opportunities for study, exploration and reflection by students, faculty and other members of the Bates community. The endowment also supports an annual lectureship on environmental issues and the spiritual and moral dimensions of ecology.