Three Carleton seniors awarded Watson Fellowships for exploration abroad

Three Carleton seniors — Mitch Porter ’25, Jonah Docter-Loeb ’25, and Victoria Semmelhack ’25 — were selected this year as recipients of the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. The fellowship supports graduating seniors during a year of independent exploration outside of the United States. The fellowship allows for deep, global engagement of a personal interest, and each Carl has unique plans for their upcoming year abroad.

Mitch Porter ’25

Porter will travel to places experiencing ecological loss to investigate environmental memory and the response of communities to ecological change. Each of his planned destinations face a unique environmental challenge, from flooding in the coastal neighborhoods of Jakarta, to deforestation in the rainforests of Borneo, to the rewilding of brown bears in central Italy and deglaciation in Greenland. 

An environmental studies and Latin American studies double major, Porter was inspired to apply for the fellowship when he heard Associate Professor of Anthropology Constanza Ocampo-Raeder, who was also a recipient of the fellowship, describe it as a formative experience. Porter has researched medicinal plant species in Mexico with Ocampo-Raeder. He also studied abroad in Argentina, an experience that developed into his senior comps project on the creation of marine protected areas in the region. 

“I really wanted to keep asking the questions that I’ve been asking,” said Porter. “What is climate change and what is environmental change, but also how do people respond and what does it actually mean for them? What does it mean to live in a world that’s constantly changing?”

Porter is excited to spend a year in “some of the most vulnerable but also most beautiful places on Earth,” and experience places where he doesn’t speak the language.

“It’s an insane privilege to get to do in the first place,” he said. “One of my biggest realizations at Carleton has been that most of the knowledge about big issues is already out there. I hope to learn from other people who are living these sorts of experiences and think about these things on a daily basis.”

Jonah Docter-Loeb ’25

Docter-Loeb will also use the fellowship to explore environmental issues, but through the lens of a creature he’s become familiar with during his time at Carleton: beavers.

Docter-Loeb will explore people’s relationships with beavers in Norway, Britain, Canada, Chile, and Argentina. He’ll explore topics such as how people work with beavers, work against beavers, and how beavers connect with conservation goals and landscape change.

“Each of these countries has unique social, historical, economic, and ecological landscapes that shape how beavers are managed and what role they play in conservation,” he said. That ranges from places where beavers are abundant, to places where they are being reintroduced after extirpation, to places where invasive beavers are reshaping landscapes unused to them.

“In every case, beavers find a way to lodge themselves into the center of complex environmental conversations,” Docter-Loeb said. The fellowship will allow him to chew on the global impacts of beavers (pun intended).

“Beavers are unique in how they challenge people’s visions for landscapes,” Docter-Loeb explained. “They’re a catalyst for these larger conversations about what we want our relationships to landscapes to look like in this increasingly changing world.” 

Docter-Loeb became passionate about beavers during his sophomore year after getting to know local trapper Mike Smith, who was hired by Carleton to kill beavers in Lyman Lakes (it’s illegal to relocate live beavers in the state of Minnesota, so trapping has become one of the only available options).

“His kindness and openness to sharing his craft inspired me to dive deeper into this issue and keep an open mind to people who commune with the natural world in ways unfamiliar to an urbanite like myself,” Docter-Loeb said. 

Docter-Loeb has since conducted an independent study on beaver management and environmental ethics; initiated and organized Beaver Fest, a now-annual Carleton tradition celebrating and educating about beavers on campus; and traveled to Washington state to speak with people involved in beaver restoration.

During his Watson Fellowship, Docter-Loeb plans to wrestle with the big questions that beavers pose about humans’ relationships to the land and each other. He’s also excited to watch beavers and build relationships with the people and landscapes he encounters.

Victoria Semmelhack ’25

Semmelhack will travel to Ghana, India, Australia, and Norway to explore childbirth knowledge and maternal healthcare policy. 

“My content is structured around two main themes,” she said. “The first is looking at how Indigenous childbirth knowledge and the more westernized hospital-based system interact. All four countries have a long history of colonization and I’m really intrigued by how that manifests itself in their actual birth practices.” 

“Another component is the rural aspect of it,” she added. “A lot of these populations are located in really rural locations, and these countries have a difficult time getting adequate maternal healthcare to them. I’m looking at how these countries provide that and the challenges in these rural areas.”

Semmelhack has had a long-running interest in birth. 

“It’s this fascinating intersection of a variety of different aspects of society,” she said. As a double major in history and sociology and anthropology, she challenged herself to end every term with a final project related to birth. 

“I was able to study the topic of birth across a variety of time periods, cultures, and societies,” she said. “The Watson Fellowship just felt like a really natural extension of that personal challenge of mine; and a really fun one at that, because I love traveling and seeing new things.”

While researching birth experiences in southern Appalachia for her senior comps project, Semmelhack discovered the value of talking with people about the topic and immersing herself in the field.

“The experience made me really excited for the Watson, where the whole year is just talking to people and meeting people,” she said. “There’s no better way to learn about this topic.”

Semmelhack said her ultimate goal is to affect maternal healthcare policy in the United States, and she plans to pursue a PhD in public health or sociology.

“This is an experience that will definitely show me whether or not this is the path that I should pursue, and I don’t think it will show me otherwise,” she said. “I’m excited to bolster my excitement for pursuing higher education and policy work.”

Learn more about the Watson Fellowship and how to apply on Carleton’s Student Fellowships website.