BECA promotes Smile in India

Posted Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:51am by Matt Itelson

A class in the Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts Department is on a mission in India this summer to bring more smiles to children’s faces. The Media and Community Service course, led by Professor Betsy Blosser, has traveled to India to produce a video for the Smile Foundation, which promotes education as the primary means of affecting social change.

During the class’ travels, Blosser has provided several updates on the BECA Department blog. She gives vivid details on the production that has taken them from the poorest neighborhoods to the Microsoft corporate offices. They are staying in a backpackers hotel in Delhi, in the middle of a bazaar.

“When we come out of the hotel, we travel through a narrow alley, full of shops, to a street full of shops, people, animals, and much activity,” Blosser writes. “Yesterday, several of us walked past a pallet being readied to carry away a corpse. As we walk along the street, people approach us to sell us things or to beg. We have to watch where we step to avoid cow pies, water, rats and, occasionally, people sleeping on the street.”