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Tag: Resident

Welcome Sunday Supper 2022

At the Welcome Sunday Supper, I-House President & CEO Sebastian Fries, PhD, gave the following remarks to an audience of hundreds of residents, several members of the Board of Trustees, several alumni—including Daisy Soros ’51—and the evening’s keynote speaker, Secretary Jeh Johnson. Sebastian’s remarks on Sunday, September 18, 2022: Good evening, everyone, and a very warm welcome to you all: to our residents, Trustees, to our alumni, members of our I-House staff, spouses, guests, friends and last but not least, to our speakers, Daisy Soros and Secretary Jeh Johnson. I am...

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Candlelight Sunday Supper Returns

After a two-year hiatus, International House celebrated the return of a beloved legacy event, Candlelight Sunday Supper, on May 1, 2022. About 250 residents, staff, and special guests gathered for the traditional family-style supper in the spacious Davis Hall to cap off a remarkable year. Attendees were required to provide proof of vaccination in order to participate. Current residents led the evening’s programming. Serving as Master of Ceremonies was Farah Otero-Amad (USA), a 2019 resident who had returned to the House in August 2021. Cellist Peng Guan (China) performed...

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Resident Spotlight: Anna Avdiushchenko (Ukraine)

Meet Dr. Anna Avdiushchenko, who joined the International House community in March 2022 from Ukraine by way of Poland to conduct a short-term research project related to creating local development policies based on a circular economy in urban environments. A professor at Poland’s Jagiellonian University and a mother of two young children, Anna shares with us a little bit about her work in sustainable development and her experience living at I-House with her family. Tell us about yourself. Where are you from, and what are you studying?I am originally from Ukraine and have been...

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Resident Spotlight: Sasha Potter (Scotland)

Meet International House resident Alexandra “Sasha” Potter, who joins our community from Scotland. Sasha is a graduate student in the Climate and Society Masters Program at Columbia University, where she also holds a graduate research assistantship at the National Centre for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) exploring the economic value of disaster resilience. Attendees of our recent event featuring sustainability experts Jeffrey D. Sachs and Andy Darrell will be familiar with Sasha already, as she served as the moderator of this very important discussion on sustainable...

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Resident Spotlight: Ritu Thapa (Nepal)

Meet Advritu “Ritu” Thapa from Nepal, a lawyer and activist who joined the I-House community for the Spring 2022 semester while she attends the Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) of the Institute of the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. She is a founding member and the treasurer of the Indigenous Women Legal Awareness Group (INWOLAG), an organization that provides free legal aid to Indigenous and other marginalized groups. Ritu earned her law degree from the University of Pune, India, and is the first LL.M. from her indigenous community. In Nepal, she worked...

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Resident Spotlight: Mariam Antadze (Georgia)

From Tbilisi, Georgia, comes Mariam Antadze, who joined the I-House community in 2022. Mariam is a Project Coordinator at The Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT), and is in New York City to attend the Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) of the Institute of the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. We asked Mariam to share about her experience at I-House and its role in her professional development. Tell us about yourself. What are you working on?I work for the rights of individuals who have been subjected to difficult forms of...

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Resident Spotlight: Elena Pulgar (Spain)

Among our amazing residents this year is Elena Pulgar, a Fulbright scholar from Spain earning her Master of Public Health degree in Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. We asked her to share about her experience at I-House and its role in her professional development. Tell us about yourself. What are you working on? I’m passionate about mental health promotion, advocacy, and policy at a population level, both locally and globally. My main interests include gender-based violence prevention, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), forced...

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