I spent two weeks of my mandate at the Ho Chi Minh City College of Economics. My task was to help them produce a Promotional video for the college and get them started on five videos that introduced each of their main areas of study - Business Administration, Accounting and so on. I was working with people who had zero experience with video production, one was an IT support staffer, Bao, and the other was an office administrator, Bich. I thought the best way to approach this would be to give them roles. I made Bich the Producer and Bao the Editor. They also acted as Production Assistants along with many others from the College who would come out of the woodwork to watch our shoots. They seemed to enjoy the process and the shooting excursions we went on and I think they learned a lot over the course of two weeks. This, despite their real full-time jobs at the school which they were never quite allowed to get away from. This was a very special part of the volunteer experience where I really had the time to get to know some people and make connections. It was sad leaving here. I wished I had another week or two.
The college is located in District 10 which is a little rough around the edges but I always felt comfortable in my explorations around the area. It's quite a different experience than District 1, which is where most Westerners begin their Saigon experience - Sheraton Hotel, Louis Vuitton and Armani stores, very un-Vietnamese. The photo posted here was taken one morning just around the corner from the school.
I spent two weeks of my mandate at the Ho Chi Minh City College of Economics. My task was to help them produce a Promotional video for the college and get them started on five videos that introduced each of their main areas of study - Business Administration, Accounting and so on. I was working with people who had zero experience with video production, one was an IT support staffer, Bao, and the other was an office administrator, Bich. I thought the best way to approach this would be to give them roles. I made Bich the Producer and Bao the Editor. They also acted as Production Assistants along with many others from the College who would come out of the woodwork to watch our shoots. They seemed to enjoy the process and the shooting excursions we went on and I think they learned a lot over the course of two weeks. This, despite their real full-time jobs at the school which they were never quite allowed to get away from. This was a very special part of the volunteer experience where I really had the time to get to know some people and make connections. It was sad leaving here. I wished I had another week or two.
The college is located in District 10 which is a little rough around the edges but I always felt comfortable in my explorations around the area. It's quite a different experience than District 1, which is where most Westerners begin their Saigon experience - Sheraton Hotel, Louis Vuitton and Armani stores, very un-Vietnamese. The photo posted here was taken one morning just around the corner from the school.