Berkeley’s International House: Where Cultures Coalesce

Spanish Colonial Revival style architecture of International House, Berkeley

Conversations here begin not with “What’s your name?”, but with ‘Where you’re from?”

John D Rockefeller (Jr.) funded the construction of I-House, Berkeley

Home to over 500 students from more than 70 countries, my current home is testimony to multiculturalism in action.

In my 2 weeks here, I’ve dined with students from China, France, Iran, Italy, India, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Taiwan, USA, and Vietnam. Some pursuing traditional paths such as engineering, law, urban planning, and business, while others pursuing PhD’s in fields as diverse as archaeology, and comparative Russian literature. All this over dinners in a magnificent dining hall at Berkeley’s historic International house located a stone’s throw from the campus of the prestigious University of California, Berkeley.

Dining Commons — I-house, Berkeley

International House — fondly called I-House — epitomises the values which brought me to Berkeley and the Haas School of Business in the first place: A desire to break bread with other cultures, and glean new perspectives.

The Great Hall — home to Mafia games every Fri night :P

Built in 1930, and located right in the heart of Berkeley’s then white-only Greek sororities and fraternities, I-house’s vision of universal brotherhood and an in-your-face to the surrounding bigotry was iconoclastic. The atmosphere I-house seeked to dispel was one where

“ There was resistance to men and women living under one roof; there was hostility to foreigners; and the notion that people of color would live with “whites” in an integrated setting was, to many, simply incredible. “

I-House gallery, Berkeley

This residence is associated with some of the most prominent leaders this world has known: Eric Schmidt (ex CEO-Google), Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Pakistan’s first democratically elected Prime Minister), John Kenneth Galbraith (US Economist and Ambassador to India), and Arun Sarin (ex CEO-Vodafone).

Library, I-House, Berkeley

Incidentally both Eric Schmidt and Arun Sarin found their better halves at I-house :)

Arun Sarin (CEO-Vodafone) was a I-House resident

As did over a thousand other couples who first met here:)

Mail Room ,I-House, Berkeley

Combination locks @ Mail room, I-House, Berkeley

It was also home to 7 Nobel Laureates!! — Owen Chamberlain (who along with Emilio Segrè discovered the antiproton) being one of them.

Owen Chamberlain’s (Nobel Laureate Physics 1959) I-House Application

MBA cohorts are crafted to be diverse; and while ~38% my class of ~290 at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business hold international passports, ~70%¹ of this class was based in the USA prior to their MBA. A little part of me feels that the diversity of viewpoints is diluted by the unconscious Americanisation my class was subjected to prior to enrollment. I-house was one of my first exposures to a truly diverse student body.

Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz in the horizon

Not to mention, the food here is hands-down the best on the Berkeley campus :D

Breakfast at the Dining Commons, I-House, Berkeley

Undergraduates at I-House must share rooms with someone of a different nationality. As I walk down the corridors at night, I see a Singaporean sharing quarters with a Japanese, a Chinese national boarding with a Taiwanese, and an American breaking bread with an Iranian. 88 years since its founding: I-House continues to question the status quo.

Home for the next 10 months :)

Sources:
http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/about/history.php
¹ Self-reported poll on a sample size of ~80; non-response rate unknown