On the third day of her stay in an impoverished rural village in India early last month, rising junior Sumer Alvarez sat down to write family and friends the last e-mail many of them would ever receive from her.

“So, how is India, many of you might ask,” Alvarez wrote. “I might reply that there are bugs everywhere. . The small town I’m in is rampant with cows, boars, goats, lizards and monkeys. . It’s impossible to escape the smell of the sewage.

“But,” she continued, “I would rather tell you that India is fricking amazing! . The people are beautiful. The places are beautiful. Everything is fantastic.”

By all accounts, Alvarez, 20, was an enthusiastic and energetic young woman with a keen desire to help those less fortunate than herself. But her efforts to teach English and computing skills to poor Indian children ended on July 31, when she died after an electrical accident in a hotel in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state in northern India.

Alvarez was seated on a metal chair at approximately 3:45 a.m. local time when she lost her balance and fell with her chair off a raised platform, striking an air cooling unit, according to a statement released by The Learning Foundation India, which organized her overseas trip. The cooler began to emit sparks and Alvarez received a strong electrical shock.

Efforts to revive her were unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead at a local hospital less than an hour later. Alvarez was attending a birthday celebration at the time with several other volunteers, the foundation said in its statement.

Alvarez was involved in the arts at Georgetown and often helped the Mask & Bauble Dramatic Society with graphic design for the group’s productions.

“She was a really good visual artist” and a “really calming presence,” Mask & Bauble member Sally Jesmonth (SFS ’08) said. “If I was getting really stressed out about something . she was the kind of person who could help you see the big picture and relax.”

Alvarez designed masks, posters and murals for Mask & Bauble productions, and she was always eager to help the group with artistic designs, Jesmonth said.

John Murphy, Alvarez’s stepfather, described Alvarez as an outgoing, cheerful individual with a passion for art, especially photography.

“She was somebody who always had a smile on her face,” Murphy said. “She’s always had a knack for all things artistic.”

Murphy also said he thought that Alvarez’s trip to India would influence the direction her future took.

“I think this was going to be the turning point in her life,” Murphy said. “This is where she was going to figure out where she was headed.”

Alvarez’s family has asked the Taj Hotel Group, which owns the hotel where Alvarez died, to implement new safety requirements, such as railings around raised platforms, to prevent future accidents.

“This has been devastating to all that knew and loved her, especially her family,” Sandy Murphy wrote in an e-mail to the Taj Hotel Group. “We wish with all of our hearts that this was a nightmare and that we could wake up; unfortunately it is not.”

Officials at the hotel group did not return a phone message seeking comment.

Alvarez had traveled to India as part of a volunteer program that seeks to teach in-demand skills like English to disadvantaged children. She arrived in India on June 30 and planned to leave August 15. In her e-mail last month, Alvarez indicated that she couldn’t have been happier, despite the often-squalid conditions in which she taught.

“This is only my third day in the village . and I already feel like I am welcome here,” she wrote. “There are five small kids who live in the house. They are all adorable. .

“I keep on saying the word `beautiful’ in this country that by the time I get home I’ll be sick of it,” she continued, describing her recent visit to Jaipur. “Even in the more Westernized places – bars – dance clubs – everyone is very friendly. . Everything feels very pure.”

Alvarez also described the poor educational conditions in the rural areas where she taught, including the lack of shoes for many children and the need to conduct lessons in the dirt.

“All their hair is cut short to prevent lice, which the majority of them already have,” she wrote. “Some of them haven’t seen pens in their entire lives. . My class is a secondary school so I have 10- to 14-year-olds – 300 of them.”

College Senior Associate Dean Hubert J. Cloke, who taught Alvarez in American Civilization II last year, said he was impressed by her intellectual curiosity and passion for the arts.

“What struck me most about her was how curious she was about things. She’d mull over things, and sort of chew on things,” then frequently ask questions after class, he said.

Cloke said that Alvarez was interested in photography and did research during his course on photography in the American Civil War.

He added that he frequently noted Alvarez’s zest for helping others and experiencing new things.

“She struck me as very open. . That quality of openness and enthusiasm” was typical of her, he said.