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Kent State photojournalism student Kristin Bauer was among the group of Kent State students who spent nine days in India to produce a multimedia collection of news and feature stories. (Photo provided by Kristin Bauer)
Kent State photojournalism student Kristin Bauer was among the group of Kent State students who spent nine days in India to produce a multimedia collection of news and feature stories. (Photo provided by Kristin Bauer)
Many citizens within Delhi are unable to receive admittance into the hospitals in Delhi and are forced to live outside of AIIMS, All India Institute of Medical Science, the hospital located in South Delhi. This woman lives with her mother and family on the streets. (Photo by Kristin Bauer)
Many citizens within Delhi are unable to receive admittance into the hospitals in Delhi and are forced to live outside of AIIMS, All India Institute of Medical Science, the hospital located in South Delhi. This woman lives with her mother and family on the streets. (Photo by Kristin Bauer)
Delhi resident Darsham Lai currently lives on the streets outside of Lady Harding Hospital, located in South Delhi. Lai has an injury impacting his right leg due to a car accident. (Photo by Kristin Bauer)
Delhi resident Darsham Lai currently lives on the streets outside of Lady Harding Hospital, located in South Delhi. Lai has an injury impacting his right leg due to a car accident. (Photo by Kristin Bauer)
Just Another Piece of Cloth is a NGO (Non-Government Organization) of India. It is an organization that takes used clothes and remakes them into clothes for young children and sanitary napkins for women. There are about 20 volunteers who work at Just Another Piece of Cloth who are responsible for sorting fabrics, sewing and packaging the reformatted products.(Photo by Kristin Bauer)
Just Another Piece of Cloth is a NGO (Non-Government Organization) of India. It is an organization that takes used clothes and remakes them into clothes for young children and sanitary napkins for women. There are about 20 volunteers who work at Just Another Piece of Cloth who are responsible for sorting fabrics, sewing and packaging the reformatted products.(Photo by Kristin Bauer)
The Yamuna is a holy river that runs just outside of Delhi in which many people bathe and wash clothes and food. Due to the different activities that take place along the banks of and in the river, the level of sanitation has sharply declined. (Photo by Kristin Bauer)
The Yamuna is a holy river that runs just outside of Delhi in which many people bathe and wash clothes and food. Due to the different activities that take place along the banks of and in the river, the level of sanitation has sharply declined. (Photo by Kristin Bauer)
A woman washes her family's clothing in the Yamuna River. Due to the activities that take place along the banks of the river and in the river, the level of sanitation has sharply declined.(Photo by Kristin Bauer)
A woman washes her family's clothing in the Yamuna River. Due to the activities that take place along the banks of the river and in the river, the level of sanitation has sharply declined.(Photo by Kristin Bauer)
The Devi family works on a South Delhi farm growing vegetables. The children work and aid their parents and extended family on various tasks on the farm.(Photo provided by Kristin Bauer)
The Devi family works on a South Delhi farm growing vegetables. The children work and aid their parents and extended family on various tasks on the farm.(Photo provided by Kristin Bauer)
The Devi family lives and works on a farm in Delhi. Here, they grow various crops, including vegetables, which are later bought and sold at markets in Delhi.(Photo provided by Kristin Bauer)
The Devi family lives and works on a farm in Delhi. Here, they grow various crops, including vegetables, which are later bought and sold at markets in Delhi.(Photo provided by Kristin Bauer)
  • Kent State photojournalism student Kristin Bauer was among the group of Kent State students who spent nine days in India to produce a multimedia collection of news and feature stories. (Photo provided by Kristin Bauer)
  • Many citizens within Delhi are unable to receive admittance into the hospitals in Delhi and are forced to live outside of AIIMS, All India Institute of Medical Science, the hospital located in South Delhi. This woman lives with her mother and family on the streets. (Photo by Kristin Bauer)
  • Delhi resident Darsham Lai currently lives on the streets outside of Lady Harding Hospital, located in South Delhi. Lai has an injury impacting his right leg due to a car accident. (Photo by Kristin Bauer)
  • Just Another Piece of Cloth is a NGO (Non-Government Organization) of India. It is an organization that takes used clothes and remakes them into clothes for young children and sanitary napkins for women. There are about 20 volunteers who work at Just Another Piece of Cloth who are responsible for sorting fabrics, sewing and packaging the reformatted products.(Photo by Kristin Bauer)
  • The Yamuna is a holy river that runs just outside of Delhi in which many people bathe and wash clothes and food. Due to the different activities that take place along the banks of and in the river, the level of sanitation has sharply declined. (Photo by Kristin Bauer)
  • A woman washes her family's clothing in the Yamuna River. Due to the activities that take place along the banks of the river and in the river, the level of sanitation has sharply declined.(Photo by Kristin Bauer)
  • The Devi family works on a South Delhi farm growing vegetables. The children work and aid their parents and extended family on various tasks on the farm.(Photo provided by Kristin Bauer)
  • The Devi family lives and works on a farm in Delhi. Here, they grow various crops, including vegetables, which are later bought and sold at markets in Delhi.(Photo provided by Kristin Bauer)

Dateline Delhi: A Study Abroad Experience in India

Kristin Bauer
This spring, 18 Kent State University students and their two professors, Gary Hanson and Mitch McKenney, spent nine days in Noida, near Delhi, in India’s Uttar Pradesh to produce a multimedia collection of news and feature stories. Their hosts at Amity University provided student-partners who served as guides, collaborators and translators.

Kristin Bauer, a senior photojournalism major and photo illustration minor from Westlake, Ohio, shares this first-person account of her study abroad experience where she experienced another culture and way of life as well as broadened her understanding of international journalism.

At first glance, one could say why would you choose India over other study abroad programs and opportunities at Kent State? However, my response would be, “Why wouldn’t I?”

I traveled to India with the International Storytelling class during this past spring semester to work on international journalism. In traveling to India, I learned so much not only about the world and journalism, but in true human kindness that we oftentimes lack within the United States

All of a sudden, all of the trivial things within the United States didn’t matter: from living in a place where I wasn’t able to consume clean water to living in a world where my biggest problem was waking up for class on time.

While in India, I was working on a story with my classmate about hospital overcrowding. My first day working on this story, I stood on the street of Delhi near the hospital in absolute shock and terror that people were just simply left to live like this.

Despite of my fears in working on this story and talking to the patients on the street, I was surprised about the kindness I found in what seemingly was the darkest corner of the world in which I traveled to. It was then the patients offered me water and food because they were concerned for me. I couldn’t believe how someone who had so little could even begin to worry about me, someone who seemingly has so much.

Traveling to India has shown me just how much we take things for granted within the United States. Things alone such as clean water, a vital need, go completely unnoticed within this country when so many go without.

Studying abroad is such a truly life changing experience and I would highly recommend doing so at some point within college.

To view the other stories told in International Storytelling, please visit www.datelinedelhi.org.

To view my blog from my trip and to view other photos, please visit http://kbauer7.wordpress.com and www.flickr.com/photos/kristinbauerphotography.

For more information about study abroad programs at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/studyabroad.

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