“The diversity and selection of people living here. There’s so much talent and knowledge everywhere you go – it’s always interesting to meet new people and learn about their stories.” Rand Jarallah was born and raised in Palestine. She moved to New York and into International House in July 2016, to complete the Young Innovators Fellowship Program at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). After completing the Program in June 2017, she started another United Nations Volunteers Assignment at UNFPA and currently serves as a Social Media Officer. UNFPA focuses mainly on Sexual...

Michael Memari, originally from from San Diego, California, first came to the east coast to study at Georgetown University, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Regional and Comparative Studies in the Middle East. He then spent a year working in Egypt at the American University in Cairo as part of the Presidential Internship Program, before going on to study advanced Farsi in Tajikistan as part of the Critical Language Scholarship the summer of 2016. He then spent a year as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Turkey. He came to New York in July 2017 for an internship at the...

More than just a house, I-House is a home where we learn and share values. It serves as a place where Residents build meaningful connections, and achieve personal and professional growth that can positively affect their communities and, perhaps one day, the world. Mehemed Bougsea with Cornelia Quennet-Thielen, Germany’s state secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Now beginning his third year as an I-House Resident, Mehemed Bougsea was born in Germany and is a citizen of Libya. He studies International Development at Columbia...

Maham Sadiq participated in the 2016-17 Women’s International Leadership (WIL) Program and gained valuable lessons in leveraging her passion toward change with confidence.  Maham Sadiq: An Engineer Committed to the Economic Development of Her Native Pakistan For generations, Maham Sadiq’s family lived in a rural village in Pakistan called Fateh Pur. It’s been just two decades – within Maham’s 25-year lifetime – since the village first gained access to electricity. Motivated by her dream to create solutions for a future where rural areas are no longer left...

Excerpt: Some 700 residents live in I-House New York during the academic year, like Columbia University grad student Mehemed Bougsea, who is Libyan-German. He says some of his most eye-opening conversations have been over breakfast in the dining room or during salsa classes in the house’s pub. “The people you meet are extraordinary in every respect,” says Bougsea. “Every day, someone will teach you something you did not know before.” Read the FullArticle