Talking Stick - January 2012 - 38

International Houses World Wide
By housing international students in his own apartment during the early 1900s, missionary Dr. Waldo Stevenson developed the first international house. A second house, located in New York, was funded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who actualized the possibility of a large affiliation program. Over the past century, the International Houses World Wide association has opened 15 I-Houses, providing homes in six different countries, including the United States, France, Australia, England, New Zealand, and Canada. Each independent and nonprofit I-House strives to fulfill a unified mission: “To provide students of different nationalities and diverse cultures with the opportunity to live and learn together in a community of mutual respect, understanding and international friendship.” IHWW develops programming that supports this mission, like the Global Voices Program that highlights distinguished speakers at the I-Houses at the University of Chicago and the University of Wollongong in Australia. Becoming associated with the International Houses World Wide program creates opportunities to share specific programming techniques and experiences with others, like at the annual IHWW conference being held this year in January in Brisbane, Australia.
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institutions, international students may be housed on a specific floor of a residence hall. Others may devote an entire building designated not only for international housing, but also for developing an international programming center. Some institutions have affiliated residences that are a part of the International Houses World Wide association (IHWW), which is a group of 15 independent and nonprofit houses offering multicultural housing environments. The diversity of international populations also vary from one campus to another: the International House (I-House) in Paris, France, for example, houses students of 140 different nationalities, and there are only 68 nationalities represented at East Carolina University in Greenville, South Carolina. The common goal of every international house is to provide an affordable residence that caters specifically to the needs and cultures of international students. These houses are not just centers for global knowledge and communication. They provide an environment to help students feel welcome and create a safe place in a sea of foreign elements. Room design, dining, and transportation need to accommodate students who are used to private bathrooms or vegan meals or may not know how to use a subway system. Housing contracts must also be adjusted for the varying lengths of time students study abroad, whether that be for a shortened sixweek session or an entire academic year. Despite the differences among programs, an initial and essential step to developing an international residence is to find out who the students are. What are their countries of origin? What religions do they practice? Are they taking classes for one semester, seeking undergraduate degrees, or pursuing graduate research? Most importantly, how can the residential program be designed to provide equal and accommodating opportunities for each resident?

Knowing how meal ingredients, room size, and housing costs will affect a student’s experience puts the housing staff miles ahead of problems before they arise.

Promoting Diversity
Since each student is a unique individual within each culture, the diversity that international students bring, as a whole, represents an even greater range of traditions in the varied global experiences of international houses. Due to the wide array of international residences in towns and cities across the globe, specific houses exchange practices and programs to better cater to their students and foster a more rewarding experience. The IHWW provides many opportunities for its houses to interact and learn from one another, specifically at their annual conference, which is being held in January this year in Brisbane, Australia. “Different houses have similar aims and aspirations in fostering international and cultural understanding,” says Clive Boock, head of hall at the I-House at the University of Auckland. Even international residence programs that are not a part of IHWW are learning from the previous experience of other halls. The international residential community at the University of Monterrey in Mexico is only five years old, but already 10 percent of the students living in the two buildings of Residencias UDEM are from international exchange programs. There are also five livein international professors, who interact with students through thematic meetings in their assigned halls. “We keep trying and recording success of different activities, always looking for improvement and best practices of other universities,” says Gloria Cecilia Belden Fernández, the director of Residencias UDEM. The number of international students will increase when the University of Monterrey follows through on

Talking Stick - January 2012

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