The fate of the orangutan and its rainforest home, the provision of eye care to underserved African communities and the aftermath of Liberia’s brutal civil wars are topics that Bates College students will discuss in public presentations during October.

The three students are recipients of Phillips Student Fellowships, Bates grants that supported their research abroad.

Robert Little, a junior from Auburn, offers the presentation Helping People and Orangutans Through Video at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 11. Two more presentations take place at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13: Emily Howe, a senior from Carlisle, Mass., delivers Unite for Sight and Theodore Sutherland, a senior from Accra, Ghana, offers Beyond the Culture of War. Both events take place in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

Phillips Student Fellowships provide cross-cultural experiences focused on research, service or the arts. The fellowships are much sought after at Bates and are awarded through a competitive process.

Little did his research in Borneo, Indonesia, where he investigated the status of orangutans and the destruction of the rainforest. He did video interviews with residents on both sides of the rainforest issue, both those involved in clearing the forests and those working to protect them.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Howe will detail her volunteer service in Ghana with the organization Unite for Sight, which brings ophthalmological care to communities with the goal of eliminating preventable blindness. A pre-med student, Howe helped provide free eye screenings and observed surgeries.

Because of her interest in public health, Howe says she found it especially interesting to “learn about different barriers to health — especially cultural barriers,” and observe Unite for Sight’s strategies for overcoming these barriers.

Sutherland worked in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, to observe how the country is rebuilding — culturally, socially, politically and economically — five years after a devastating 14-year civil war.

Working in the office of the Monrovia’s mayor, Mary Broh, he gained a unique perspective on how public policy is used in an African context to negotiate the cultural, economic and social tensions that arise from the mayhem of wars. With an ultimate goal of “learning about how conflicts change the culture of countries,” Sutherland will contrast his Liberian experiences with his perceptions of Ghana and America.

The Phillips Student Fellowships honor Charles F. Phillips, the fourth president of Bates College, and his wife, Evelyn M. Phillips. Grants provide students with an experience of immersion in another culture, opportunities for extensive research, service-learning, volunteer work or career exploration, as well as unique opportunities for intellectual and personal growth.

By Kelly Cox  ’11

Stressing the importance of keeping recyclables out of trash and trash out of recyclables, Rob Little ’12 of Auburn premiered his documentary Recycling at Bates College during the Feb.4 EnviroLunch.

Aimed at a student audience, the video emphasizes the proper sorting of trash and recyclables, a dimension to recycling not often considered. Through scenes of dorm waste, cans, and throwaway cups, Little illustrated the environmental and economic effects of sloppy sorting.

An environmental studies major and education minor, Little spent six months creating the documentary at the request of Julie Rosenbach, the college’s sustainability coordinator. Using equipment from the Digital Media Center and Bates College Television, Little transformed Rosenbach’s abstract ideas into a viral educational video, intended to spread quickly via the Internet.

Little took a course on producing documentaries at the Maine Media Workshop in Rockport, an international center for education and training in photography, film, video, animation, design and book arts, and multimedia. He hopes to use his film talents to advance issues concerning wildlife.

Edited from five hours of footage, the 7-minute, 27-second piece follows recyclables from dorm basements to Lewiston’s Solid Waste Department. In the piece, department Superintendent Rob Stalford points out that it costs the city more to dispose of “contaminated” or badly sorted recyclables.

Stalford explained that recycling is a market-driven process. The industrial purchasers of recycled materials have certain requirements — for example, pure newspaper is worth more than mixed paper. If those requirements can’t be met, purchasers shop elsewhere. “If that falls apart, you’re not recycling,” Stalford said. “You’re creating a lot more work for the disposal process.”

The documentary offers recycling guidelines and illustrates the impact the practice can make. While on the face of it, it appears that an effort is being made, students actually need to pay more attention to how we are disposing of our waste, an average of four and a half pounds per student a day.

“The biggest thing is, of course, education,” said College grounds supervisor John Griffiths, who notes that contaminated recyclables are not longer recyclables — they’re just trash.

Little contrasts student concern for the issue with their wasteful habits, incorporating interviews from the 2009 Waste Audit, a visual presentation outside of Commons that emphasized the campus’ need for better recycling. The short film powerfully accentuates the responsibility of all Batesies to grow a green consciousness.

With some 1,700 students on campus, our participation “is essential to the whole process,” said Little during the noontime screening. “The students’ role in sorting recyclables is the key to profitable and therefore sustainable recycling.”

“Everybody should see this film, students, staff and faculty,” noted Maryli Tiemann of the Maine Campus Compact, a coalition of 18 member campuses that catalyze and lead a movement to reinvigorate the public purposes and civic mission of higher education. “Bates is a community, and we could really make a difference if we did sort our recycling.”

“It is up to all of us to do it correctly,” noted Little at the Envirolunch, a weekly community gathering for all students, staff, and faculty sponsored by the Office of Sustainability and the environmental studies program. “I believe that documentary has the power to teach and inspire people.”