Jonathan Hiskes | Dec. 17, 2007
 |
| Photo by Andrew Prinsen |
| Andrew Prinsen, B.A.J. ’07, traveled to India for his Ross Hazeltine Travel Scholarship and documented his experience in a blog. |
Related
|
Several pounds lighter and loaded with stories to tell, Andrew Prinsen, B.A.J. ’07, recently returned from India, where he spent the fall reporting and photographing life in that country as part of this Ross Hazeltine Travel Scholarship.
The $7,000 grant is designed for a newly-graduated journalism student to report on global issues outside North America. Prinsen, the 2007 recipient, documented leper colonies, interviewed a World Health Organization official and volunteered with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta (Kolkata). Along the way, he wrote, took photos and produced audio slide shows for his blog. He tailored them for North Americans who may not have known much about leprosy in India.
“My goal was really just to get people to care about that part of the world and blogging was good for that,” he said. The blog is posted at the School of Journalism Web site.
The Hazeltine was established in 1978 to encourage new grads to travel to different countries to report on different cultures. Past recipients have visited Spain, Russia, China, Haita and Latvia, among others. A committee reviews applications to select the recipient.
"His project struck us as very ambitious, but at the same time we were confident that he would follow through," said Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies Bonnie Brownlee.
Prinsen took off for India in August. The Evansville-area native spent several weeks at a leper community in Sarnath, where the Buddha preached his first sermon. Through translators, Prinsen interviewed multiple patients and heard a common narrative emerge: After finding themselves ill, leprosy patients would go through a period of denial, then visit an unqualified “witch doctor” who would typically give bad advice, Prinsen said. By the time they sought proper treatment, patients often had irreversibly damaged limbs. Leprosy is curable but without treatment, victims can lose the ability to sense pain, resulting in more serious injuries.
“It wouldn’t be such a problem if people could get over the social fear of it and go right to treatment,” Prinsen said.
He said reporting through a translator presented new challenges.
“It’s hard to connect through a translator,” he said. “The way I like to write, I like to try to connect with the person and feel like I understand them, which is tough to do through a translator. But once in a while it would happen.”
He mentioned helping with breakfast in Sarnath with patients who spoke only Hindi.
“Crouching on the ground at 6 a.m., making dough for rotis [flat bread] with no translators around…There was a connection in that, somehow,” he said.
His father visited for a vacation on the beach and a trip to the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, and a friend came to accompany him in Calcutta. The rest of the time, he traveled alone, with only one rough stretch.
“Giardia (an intestinal bug) was kind of a bummer,” he said. “Being able to eat less than one full meal a day…I like to eat.”
He said he’s gained back ten of the 20 pounds he lost during the illness.
Prinsen began journalism school on the photography track, but he came to appreciate the value of a multimedia approach, he said.
“That was great,” he said of focusing on photography. “But the more time I spent in the school, I learned that to tell the stories I wanted to tell, I had to know writing. Photos can’t do everything, although they work well in conjunction with writing.”
He plans to look for a job in journalism, and he said he is open to a variety of media.
“I want to find something that’s going to let me tell stories,” he said. “Whether that’s public radio or a newspaper or something else, I don’t really care…I hope never to lose the drive to make people care about other people, especially the marginalized and poor.”
The $7,000 grant is designed for a newly-graduated journalism student to report on global issues outside North America. Prinsen, the 2007 recipient, documented leper colonies, interviewed a World Health Organization official and volunteered with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta (Kolkata). Along the way, he wrote, took photos and produced audio slide shows for his blog. He tailored them for North Americans who may not have known much about leprosy in India.
“My goal was really just to get people to care about that part of the world and blogging was good for that,” he said. The blog is posted at the School of Journalism Web site.
The Hazeltine was established in 1978 to encourage new grads to travel to different countries to report on different cultures. Past recipients have visited Spain, Russia, China, Haita and Latvia, among others. A committee reviews applications to select the recipient.
"His project struck us as very ambitious, but at the same time we were confident that he would follow through," said Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies Bonnie Brownlee.
 |
| Photo by Andrew Prinsen |
| This man found solace at one of the Missionaries of Charity homes founded by Mother Teresa. "In the mix and swell of people that occupy the downtrodden city of Kolkata (Calcutta), it’s easy for people to be forgotten, to fall through the cracks," Prinsen said. This man was near of the city’s train stations, being walked past by thousands of people during their daily comings and goings. |
“It wouldn’t be such a problem if people could get over the social fear of it and go right to treatment,” Prinsen said.
He said reporting through a translator presented new challenges.
“It’s hard to connect through a translator,” he said. “The way I like to write, I like to try to connect with the person and feel like I understand them, which is tough to do through a translator. But once in a while it would happen.”
He mentioned helping with breakfast in Sarnath with patients who spoke only Hindi.
“Crouching on the ground at 6 a.m., making dough for rotis [flat bread] with no translators around…There was a connection in that, somehow,” he said.
His father visited for a vacation on the beach and a trip to the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, and a friend came to accompany him in Calcutta. The rest of the time, he traveled alone, with only one rough stretch.
“Giardia (an intestinal bug) was kind of a bummer,” he said. “Being able to eat less than one full meal a day…I like to eat.”
He said he’s gained back ten of the 20 pounds he lost during the illness.
Prinsen began journalism school on the photography track, but he came to appreciate the value of a multimedia approach, he said.
 |
| Photo by Andrew Prinsen |
| One boy gives another a piggy-back ride near a market in Calcutta (Kolkata). Prinsen documented daily activities as he traveled in India. |
He plans to look for a job in journalism, and he said he is open to a variety of media.
“I want to find something that’s going to let me tell stories,” he said. “Whether that’s public radio or a newspaper or something else, I don’t really care…I hope never to lose the drive to make people care about other people, especially the marginalized and poor.”
Questions? Comments? Email the Web editor.
