I-Alum! - International House - University of California, San Diego

V O L U M E
 I-House has
moved into
spectacular new
facilities in
Eleanor Roosevelt College
designed by
renowned Israeli
architect Moshe
Safdie.
Each year over
260 undergraduates, graduates
and visiting
scholars now
reside at
-House.
I S S U E
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A U G U S T
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Welcome to I-Alum!
QUICK
I-HOUSE
UPDATE
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I-Alum
I
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:
What’s New at I 2
-House
I-House
Scholarships
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Director’s
Dialogue
3
Alumni
Updates
4
I-House
Listservs
4
Alumni
Spotlight
5
I-Alum
Response Form
6
How many times over the years
have you thought back about
those amazing times you had at IHouse? What happened to the
friends you made at the Culture
Nights or the study breaks?
What about your RAs or your
roommates from Japan, Germany, the US or somewhere else in
this big world?
news, and rekindle fond memories of the good old days in San
Diego.
So enjoy this first edition of IAlum and let it be the beginning
of something great. Let us know
where you are and what you’re
up to. Send us photos of your
reunions and stories about your I
-House experiences. Come back
to San Diego and join us for a
Sunday Supper, IAG or another
event.
So welcome back to I-House,
and we hope to hear from you
soon!
You might be wondering
what’s going on with I-House
today. Still the setting for international friendships (and romances) and heated political conversations into the wee hours of the
night?
I-Alum is here to help you
reconnect! I-Alum will let you
know periodically about reunions
happening worldwide, update
you on all the latest I-House
International House Great Hall and Residents, Fall 2004
A Long Way from Pepper Canyon...
It’s a long way from Pepper Canyon to the new I-House! Unless
you are a very recent I-House
Alum, the changes may come as a
big surprise.
and spacious resident apartments
(all singles!), amenities include
the Great Hall with capacity for
250 people, as well as four lounges and several meeting rooms.
In Fall 2003, I-House moved to
its new home on North Torrey
Pines Drive on the northwest
side of campus near RIMAC.
Although I-House is still an integral part of Eleanor Roosevelt
College, it has spectacular new
facilities which are distinctly
I
-House. In addition to beautiful
I-House has grown from a
population of 150 to approximately 260 and includes visiting
scholars and a faculty fellow.
I-House also has an expanded
mission: to not only provide
globally focused experiences and
programs for the residents of I
-House, but also to serve as a
resource for international learning for the entire campus
community. Many traditional
programs have been expanded
and enhanced and new activities
have been launched. I-House
also has several new staff
members to help take care of
these new responsibilities.
Check out some of our new
programs on the following pages...
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Ambassadors, American Pie, Arabic and
more… What’s New at I-House?
As I-House’s mission, facilities and staff have grown, so too have the programs and
services provided to I-House residents and the campus community. The three activities
highlighted below are just a snapshot of the exciting new initiatives at I-House.
Sunday Suppers initiated in March 2004, are now one of I-House’s biggest happen-
I-House resident Toni Roth
(02-03 and 04-05) and I-House
Alum Josh Wortman (01-04) at
the May 05 Sunday Supper
“This year, more
than 20 different
language [tables]
met regularly... and
attracted over 2500
attendees. The
most popular tables
were Japanese,
Spanish and
French.”
Thai Language
Conversation Table
ings. They are a tradition which dates back to the 1930s in many of the older I-Houses. Here
at UCSD, the suppers happen once a quarter and bring approximately 150 residents, alumni and
community friends together for an elegant sit down dinner at the Great Hall. They are occasions to share a sociable evening, reflect with a key note speaker on important international
topics, and enjoy entertainment and exhibits showcasing the talent of I-House residents.
In 04-05, the guest speakers were Monika Kalra, an I-House Alumna (‘94-’96) and international human rights lawyer with the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Center, former
Ambassador to Mexico and Venezuela Jeffrey Davidow and UCSD’s recently inaugurated
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox.
American Pie: What’s Under the Crust is an innovative new program which has won numerous grants and is a collaboration between I-House, the International
Center , SOLO and the Cross-Cultural Center. It brings international and American
students together from all over campus to
deeply explore crucial issues in US culture.
Each quarter, American Pie holds a day long
event which incorporates a community visit, a
volunteer project and a dinner and discussion
all centered on a specific aspect of American
culture. In 04-05, the three themes were
American politics, ethnic diversity and
religious diversity.
Highlights included marching in the MLK
Day parade, volunteering at the Rescue
Mission Homeless Shelter, and recruiting
Vietnamese bilingual poll workers for the
2004 presidential elections.
American Pie participants paint a mural at a
San Diego homeless shelter
Language Conversation Tables are a long standing tradition at
I-House which has recently been expanded and enhanced. The tables have always
brought together native speakers and language learners for a chance to speak
informally in a foreign language. Now, this opportunity is not just for residents, but
also for students, faculty, staff and even the San Diego community.
This year, more than 20 different languages met regularly (10 of which met weekly) and attracted over 2500 attendees. The most popular tables were Japanese,
Spanish and French, but even tables like Arabic, Cantonese, Dutch, Farsi, Hebrew,
Swedish, Thai and American Sign Language had a loyal following. The tables are
open to all levels and meet in Café Ventanas, the beautiful new ERC Dining Hall.
I-ALUM
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I-House Scholarship Initiative
Beginning Fall 2005, International House hopes to increase the diversity of backgrounds and
experiences represented among residents, especially from Africa and the Middle East,
through I-House’s first scholarship program. These competitive scholarships will subsidize
I-Housers with serious financial need who come from countries which are historically underrepresented at I-House and/or individuals who have been personally negatively impacted
by widespread violent conflict in their home countries.
I-House was founded on the
belief that a key ingredient for
promoting peace and understanding is the ability to rub shoulders
daily with people of different
backgrounds and experiences. To
meet this goal, I-House must
strive to represent both north
and south, east and west, privileged and impoverished. Residents who have suffered poverty,
persecution and violence in their
home countries have an especially important role at I-House.
However, historically 90% of IHousers come from only 12
countries (Australia, Brazil, Chile,
China/Hong Kong, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom and
the United States). The remaining 10% have traditionally come
from a variety of smaller, affluent
countries. Many regions, such as
Africa and the Middle East, are
rarely represented. In addition,
few if any I-House residents have
had experience with the hundreds of violent conflicts in the
world today.
cludes distinct countries, ethnicities social classes and experiences. Donations at any level would
be greatly appreciated.
With these scholarships, we
hope to increase diversity at IHouse as well as the depth and
range of I-House programs. Not
only will greater diversity enrich
traditional activities such as IAG,
the Language Conversation Tables, and Culture Nights, but will
provide opportunities for connections with community leaders
and local non-profits
working with diverse
communities.
If you are interested in contributing to the scholarship campaign,
please fill out the donation form
in I-Alum or contact us directly at
ihouse@ucsd.edu.
Geographic Breakdown of
I
-House Residents 2002-2005
As I-House’s first Director, my
goals include expanding the
scope, quality and reach of
I
come from only
12 countries…
Many regions
such as Africa
and the Middle
East, are rarely
We urgently
to make IHouse’s first
scholarships
possible.”
Emily and UCSD’s new
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox at
the May 2005 Sunday Supper
From Emily Maxon, Director of International House
Since graduating from UCSD,
my passions have taken me as far
a field as Connecticut, Argentina,
Japan, and Moscow but have land-
residents have
need your help
We urgently need
your help to make IHouse’s first scholarships possible.
I
-House is seeking
donors who share our
understanding of the
importance of a resident body that in-
ed me squarely back to where life
was always the most meaningful
(and fun!), I-House. I have been
working with international communities now for over 10 years,
but am so pleased to be back at
UCSD.
90% of I-House
represented….
Director’s Dialogue
Greetings from La Jolla! My picture may look familiar to some of
you because I am a very proud IHouse Alumna (‘93-’95). I was
also an RA with my partners
Kawun, Kimbi and Sue.
“Historically,
-House programs, making I-House a motor for
the internationalization
of UCSD, diversifying
the I-House resident
population and raising
I-House’s profile worldwide. I also hope to
greatly enhance alumni
outreach.
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Alumni Updates from 2000-2005
Alumni
Updates
REUNIONS
04-05
When: tentatively set
for Dec. 05 after
Christmas week.
Where: ?? Nice, Rome,
Budapest, island in
Greece?
Contact: Patrick
(Netherlands)
devnull@pelicano.org
or one of the Italians,
Alessia, Viviana or Luca
—————————————————
04-05
What: Halloween
Hootenanny reunion
When: week before
Halloween (Oct. 31,
2005)
Where: Derry, Ireland
Contact: Maura
(Ireland)
maura_mac@hotmail.
com
I-ALUM
Tony Montano (US/00-03),
is now in Riverside, CA, where
he started his own business
doing project development. In
his spare time he draws ballerinas. www.glasskite.com
T.J. Tallie (US/02-03) is
spending two weeks in Europe
this summer before heading
back for his master’s degree in
European history at UCSD
Several international I-Housers
are in Boston, Massachusetts in
graduate school including
James Cowling (Australia/0203) and Nozomi Mizuno
(Japan /02-03)
03) is in Spain in Cantabria
working on becoming a pro in
Spanish.
Josh Wortman (US/01-04) is
working at a software company
in San Diego and also raises
awareness on the Darfur crisis
in Africa.
Cassie Pataky (US/01-04) is
living in London working as the
International Public Relations
Manager for the Justice Foundation, a NGO which advo-
cates for human rights. Write
her and ask her about her
adventures with the Royal
Family!
Dhwani Vahia (US/02-04) is
back in her hometown of San
Jose, California working for a
software company.
Lency Triplett (US/01-02)
and Aksel Olsen
(Denmark/01-02) were happily
wed in 2005.
Annmarie Bologna (USA/02
-03) after having worked at
UCSD for two years is engaged and moving to Virginia.
Leana Opp (US/02-03) - After I-House, Leana enjoyed a
year of studying and traveling
abroad in Mexico and Spain.
Now she is in Silicon Valley,
CA working at Electronic Arts
University, saving up money
and then heading on to grad
school.
Dina El Dessouky (USA/02-
I-House residents 02-03 Mini Ski Reunion in South
America: Camila Salas, Matias Arredondo, Bernardia
Izurrieta (all from Chile) and Rafael Santos (Brazil)
The I-House Listserv - an Ongoing Tradition
The I-House listservs, which have been created
each year since 1998-1999, are still going strong!
The listservs allow you to communicate directly
through email with all the other I-Housers
enrolled on the listserv for the year that you lived
in I-House. They are a great, non-obtrusive way
to get back in touch. If you are not already on
the listserv for your year, you should follow the
instructions to the right to get signed up.
Please note, listservs have now been created for
every year that I-House has existed since 1988.
To Add Yourself to the Listserv:
Send an email to listserv@ucsd.edu. Leave the
subject line blank. In the body of the email, enter
the following: ‘add youremail@email.com
ihouse2004-l’
EXAMPLE: ‘add jshmo@gmail.com ihouse2004-l’
Note: Replace ‘ihouse2004-l’ with the academic
year that you lived at I-House—i.e. ‘ihouse2000-l’
For academic years before 2000, use only two
digit years, i.e. ‘ihouse94-l’.
Note: Disregard the single quotations when entering this text.
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Alumni Spotlight - Kawun Kakar
Although some of you may
remember Kawun Kakar
(Afghanistan-US/’93-’94) as
an I-House RA with an incredible flair for cross dressing and great dance moves,
he is now known globally as
an expert on Afghan affairs
and a key player in the reform of his country,
on a career in the United
Nations. In the midst of
researching the effects of
sanctions on the Taliban
regime, the tragedy of Sept.
11, 2001 made his academic
preparation and his personal
background fundamental in
meeting the crises of the
moment.
After receiving his BA in
History at UCSD and his
Juris Doctorate from UC
Hastings, Kawun embarked
Since then, he has advised on
the revision of the Afghan
constitution and served as
diplomatic consul and advisor
on parliamentary affairs to
Afghan President Hamid
Karzai. Kawun also found
time in March 2005 to marry
(as Kawun himself put it) a
“lovely, polished NewYorker lawyer with a wild
nomadic Afghan flair.” Many
of you may also remember
Kawun’s sister Khwaga, who
also was a wonderful
I
-House RA. Khwaga is currently teaching in the Bay
area. We hope to bring them
both back to I-House in the
Kawun speaking on KPBS’s “Online
News Hour with Jim Lehrer” in 2001
near future to speak at an IAG or Sunday Supper about their experiences.
Alumni Updates from 1988-1999
Rae Ann Bories-Easley, (US/’88-’89)
is in Washington DC at American
University working as the Director of
Outreach and Marketing for their Career Center.
Neil Dilley (US/’90-‘91) is working in
San Diego for a small high tech company and on the side does physics
demonstrations for high schoolers
involving frozen roses.
Eli Alvarado (USA-Mexico/'94-'95)
married fellow I-Houser Doris Herwig (Germany/'94-'95) in the fall of
2003.
Torsten Brylla (Germany/’93-‘94) is
working for Procter and Gamble and
living in Geneva, Switzerland with his
Italian wife and their new baby.
Marina Hayden (Mexico/’93-‘94)and
Ian Hayden (US/’93-’94) are happily
married, living in San Diego with their
three year old son.
Ann Quinn (USA/93-96) is in San
Diego working as a Management Consultant for a medical company and
keeping up with her many, many IHouse buddies.
Omer Kamran (US/‘94-‘97) is moving
from San Francisco to Fremont and
going to back to school.
Amir Axelrod (Israel/‘93-‘97) and Sherrie Wang (US/‘96-‘97) were married in
Sunnyvale, CA in April 2004. They’ve since
moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico
where Amir is doing his medical residency
and Sherrie has left her job at Yahoo to go
back to school.
Akiko Tagawa (Japan/’93-‘94) and Christian Gurtner (Switzerland/’93-‘94) got
married on a Swiss mountain top in August
2003. Akiko is doing a post-doc and researches “vermicelli” while Christian consults for McKenzie.
William Noble (Grundy) (US/’93-’94) is
on faculty at the Health Sciences Center in
Seattle Washington but is still known to
turn a dance move with his two sons Jack
(2 years) and Scout (2 months).
Emese Radvanszky (Hungary-US/’93-’94)
lives in San Diego with her husband and is
raising Alex (2 years) and Liliane (2
months)
Kimberly McCloud(US/’93-’94) after
stints in Vienna and Prague, recently returned to San Jose where she is working
for a high tech company.
Alya Guseva (Ukraine/’93-’95) is a sociology professor at Boston University.
Monika Kalra Varma (US/’94-’96) recently returned to I-House as a Sunday Supper
speaker to talk about her human rights
work in Haiti and India. She and her husband live in Washington DC where she is
an attorney at the RFK Human Rights Center.
Stephanie Camahort (US/'93-'94,'96'97) and Geir Rørtveit (Norway/'96-'97)
were wed in 2001.
Tracy Mincer (US/'93-'94) and Andrea
Carter (US/’93-’94) are married and living
in San Diego.
Rob de Bruin (Netherlands/'96-'97) and
Nicola Ostler (UK/'96-'97) married in
August 2002 with a ceremony in Cambridge, England and a reception in the
Netherlands. Rob is a geneticist/post-doc
at Scripps doing research on cancer and
Nicola is a teacher.
Mike Nakabayashi (US/'97-'98) is an
engineer working in San Diego and has
frequented several Sunday Suppers.
Joe Soroka (Canada/'96-'97) and Maud
Lavillonniere (France/'96-'97) married in
Grenoble, France in the summer of 2001.
Patrick Hilt (Germany/'96-'97) and Monica Rojas (Mexico/'96-'97) were wed in
April 1998 in San Diego.
I-Alum Response Form
International House UCSD, founded
in 1988, is a campus wide program
dedicated to the promotion of international awareness and intercultural
First name
Last Name
What year/s did you live in I-House?
Country
understanding at UCSD and the
world. I-House activities are open to
all. Roughly 260 people from over 30
Present Position/employment/graduate school
Email and Address
countries reside in I-House each year.
Residents, approximately half US and
half international, include
Your News for the Next I-Alum: ___________________________
___________________________________________________________
undergraduates from all six colleges,
___________________________________________________________
graduates and visiting scholars.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Lasting I-House Memory: __________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Stay Involved in International House!
I would like to donate $_______ for I-House scholarships (see pg 3 for
more information). Please note, a portion of your gift may be placed into an
endowment to provide support for future scholarships
Get a limited edition
I- House mug for only $5
+ shipping and handling!
Contact me about establishing an endowed scholarship in my name
Send me invitations to Sunday Suppers
Send me emails concerning upcoming I-House events
I would like to donate $_______ to help support I-House programming
Sign me up for my year’s I-House listserv
* Please make checks payable to UC San Diego Foundation
International House, University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, 0550, La Jolla, CA 92093-0550
Phone: 858-822-1791; Fax: 858-534-0550
ihouse@ucsd.edu; http://ihouse.ucsd.edu
Send us your photos of the I-House
mug joining I-House reunions and
traveling the world for your chance
to win an I-House desk globe!