Launch Pad to a Global Education: New Funds Inspire Open Minds, Broadened Horizons
June 16, 2025
Katriel Sander ’27 is the inaugural recipient of the Lou Ortmayer Fellowship, created by Marianne and Steven Porter ’79 and named for one of Porter’s most influential Davidson professors.
Katriel Sander ’27 has embarked on a year-long journey around the world: a summer in Peru, working with Venezuelan immigrants on issues related to healthcare access, followed by a full year in Germany studying humanities, literature and public health topics while working to become fluent in the language.
Marianne and Steven Porter ’79 share a passion for international travel.
L-r: President Doug Hicks ’90, Professor Emeritus of Political Science Lou Ortmayer, Steven Porter ’79, Carolyn Ortmayer
He’ll follow up his summer and fall travel with a six-week winter break side trip to India or Bangladesh. Before now, the rising junior at Davidson College had not traveled outside of the country.
“I think the rampant individualism in the U.S. lends to forgetting or ignoring that seemingly distant hardship abroad is much closer than we think,” he said. “I’m interested in migration populations and public health and plan to do my thesis on this topic. There’s so much work to be done.”
Sander, who came to Davidson from Flat Rock, North Carolina, is the inaugural recipient of the Lou Ortmayer Fellowship, created by Marianne and Steven Porter ’79 and named for one of Porter’s most influential Davidson professors. In addition to travel, the fellowship calls for faculty mentorship to help guide the students as they apply learnings from their experiences to what they’re doing on campus and beyond. The fellowship is administered by the Dean Rusk Program for International Studies.
Sander’s plans are exactly what Porter hoped this new fund would do for students interested in global health.
“The opportunity to study and live abroad is invaluable in developing tolerance of diversity and an understanding of different viewpoints,” Porter said. “I love the idea of Davidson students having these experiences early in their careers while they are still impressionable. It’s amazing how quickly preconceived stereotypes of something can get blown away when you experience life and culture elsewhere.”
The fellowship was established to select one sophomore student annually and to support experiential learning experiences for the remainder of their time at Davidson in the areas of international public health, medicine and/or food and water security in developing countries. The program is designed to allow students to stack each new experience on top of the last, rather than a “one-and-done” approach to international travel, an important distinction to Porter, who became a physician, worked in tropical disease research and spent the last 16 years of his career in biopharmaceuticals.
“It’s a launching pad,” he explained. “I have been exposed to medicine and diseases all over the world, from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan to Tanzania and Papua New Guinea among other places. Medicine is practiced somewhat differently in developing countries due to limited resources, and it’s hard to imagine it if you haven’t seen it. These experiences helped shape my entire life personally and professionally.”
A Single Class, A Lifetime of Impact
Porter’s fascination with international travel, specifically in the developing world, started during his senior year at Davidson in a political science class taught by Prof. Lou Ortmayer. First, Ortmayer told his students that everything in the news was fair game for a pop quiz, requiring Porter to pay much closer attention to what was going on in the world. He developed a special interest in the international arena, and he still reads the international part of The New York Times every single day. Secondly, Ortmayer started the semester covering the Green Revolution, a period of agricultural innovation in the mid-20th century, especially in developing countries. At that point, Porter had been to Europe a couple of times, but the course material piqued his interest in other parts of the world.
“It’s entirely possible these interests could have developed in me some other way,” he said, “but he was such a dynamic teacher and he made it so fascinating.”
Ortmayer recalls the class Porter took, and when his former student rang his doorbell at The Pines some 50 years later, they reconnected like no time had passed. The now-retired professor was honored to learn about Porter’s support of Davidson students.
In addition to the fellowship, Porter has also created the Lou Ortmayer Scholarship, which will provide need-based support to students from countries with emerging economies beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.
“It’s nice to hear you’ve had an impact,” Ortmayer said. “And to me, the right kind of impact — a guy who’s curious about the world. That’s the kind of person we ought to be encouraging. It’s important to be exposed to different ideas and different places, which helps discover new interests and strengths. Steve is a great example.”
Ortmayer taught Davidson students for 40 years, and he admired that they arrived on campus more open-minded than at places he’d taught before. He enjoyed challenging them and being challenged in return.
“The kind of funding Steve is providing is so important,” he said. “It gives students incentive to open their minds to things they hadn’t thought that much about before. It takes a great deal of guts and determination to explore like that, and that’s part of the growth of doing it. This support will encourage people to think in ways they’re just beginning to think about.”
Jane Mangan, McGee Director of the Dean Rusk International Studies Program and Mary Reynolds Babcock Professor of History and Latin American Studies, sees every day the impact of gifts like Porter’s in shaping the interests and pathways of Davidson students.
This is a stellar grant model that allows for multiple high-impact learning experiences through one grant, paired with the support of a faculty mentor to help the recipient further reflect and grow from each experience. While the majority of Davidson students will spend time abroad in Europe, this grant recognizes the extraordinary opportunities for growth in the developing world.
Prof. of History and Latin American Studies
Sander can spread out the fellowship funding from now until the summer after he graduates from Davidson, allowing for an individualized experience that grows with him. He’s excited to see how these experiences will help direct his future.
“Right now, I am interested in public health policy through law,” he said. “I haven't ruled out medical school one day, which was my initial plan at Davidson. For now, though, I am much more drawn to the broad impact that litigation can produce in public health.”
Like Porter, Sander has been deeply influenced by Davidson courses and professors. He points to his Humanities Fellowship with Patricio Boyer, associate professor of Hispanic Studies, E. Craig Wall, Jr., Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities and director of the Humanities Program, that sparked excitement for the power and complexity of law. And, tuberculosis research alongside Professor of Chemistry Nicole Snyder, opened his eyes to public health.
“Davidson’s financial investment in me, in addition to professors’ close relationships with students, is what drew me here in the first place, and I appreciate all the experiences that have already come my way,” Sander said. “My brother supports our family right now, so I plan to take over that responsibility after college so he can go to law school, which is his dream. Then I’ll work on my next steps. I’m really grateful to Steve and to Davidson.”
