Wilmington student named Phillips Student Fellow at Bates

John J. Minor, a Bates College junior from Wilmington, N.C., has been named a 2000 Phillips Student Fellow and will receive a grant of up to $10,000 to study music in a cross-cultural context in Ghana this summer.

Minor, a mandolinist and violinist who is majoring in geology and minoring in philosophy, plans to study Ghanaian drumming and strings to mingle the sounds of the mandolin ‹ and his own understanding of European music ‹ with the sound and rhythms of traditional Ghanaian drumming. Ultimately, he hopes to gain a more informed understanding of African musical heritage. He will undertake home stays in Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast, and will study drumming at the University of Ghana at Legon.

Phillips Student Fellows each receive grants of up to $10,000 for summer projects in service-learning, career exploration, research or some combination of the three in international and other culturally distinct settings. The Phillips Student Fellowships, along with the Phillips Faculty Fellowships and Phillips Professorships at Bates, are part of the Phillips Endowment Program, an ambitious initiative of awards, honors and opportunities for faculty and students funded by a $9-million endowment bequest to the college from former Bates President Charles F. Phillips, and his wife, Evelyn Minard Phillips, in 1999.

The Phillips bequest is believed to be the largest gift ever from a U.S. college president and spouse to his or her institution. The Phillipses, longtime Auburn residents, officially served Bates from 1944 through 1966; Charles F. died in March 1999 just months after the death of Evelyn M., his wife of 65 years.

Also named 2000 Phillips Student Fellows are Sze Wei Ang ’01 of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Kathryn Dutille ’01 of Lebanon, N.H.; Margot Fine ’03 of Scarsdale, N.Y.; Kristin Hines ’02 of East Granby, Conn.; John Daniel Lichtman ’02 of Woodbridge, Conn.; Christian McTighe ’02 of Delmar, N.Y.; and Mindy Newman ’01 of Atlanta, Ga.

A Dana Scholar and dean’s list student at Bates, Minor is an officer of the Bates College Outing Club, in charge of cabins and trails. He also is a member of the Crosstones, Bates’ coed a capella group, and the Bates College Ultimate Frisbee Club. He studied the geology of Maine’s seacoast by kayak in a spring 2000 Short Term unit and “Environment and Environmentalism,” a 1999 Short Term unit in Utah.

A 1998 graduate of Cape Fear Academy, Minor is the son of Dr. Gill Minor of Charlottsville, Va., and Pamela Minor of Gainesville, Fla.