Tag: Spotlight

Resident Spotlight: Peter Ostergard

Written by International House on May 22, 2026. Posted in Resident News.

Peter Ostergard came to I-House knowing he was not the first in his family to live here. His mother had lived in the House, and so had his uncle. But once Ostergard became a resident himself, curiosity led him to the resident directories on the I-House website, where he discovered that his family’s legacy went back much further than he realized. His mother, Johanne Christiane Frazer Riegels ’97, spent a summer at I-House in 1997 while studying architecture at Columbia...

Alumni Spotlight: Mayor Phil Hardberger ’60

Written by International House on May 21, 2026. Posted in Alumni News.

From Room 425 to City Hall When Mayor Phil Hardberger ’60 arrived in New York from rural West Texas to attend Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, he had seen little of the world beyond the small farm where he grew up. “My experience in the world was pretty close to zero,” he recalled. “Then suddenly, I was meeting people from all over the world. My mind just exploded with ideas.” At I-House, Hardberger found himself surrounded by residents from parts of the world he had never experienced before. Around the dining tables, conversations stretched across cultures,...

Resident Spotlight: Darryl Sim

Written by International House on February 9, 2026. Posted in Resident News.

I-House resident Darryl Sim knows what it’s like to land in New York, wake up in a room in I-House South, grab a Pret coffee, make music, and squeeze in a run along Riverside Park. For the past semester, Darryl, who is from Singapore, has been documenting his daily life on his YouTube channel and on Instagram (@soundslikedarryl), capturing the jet lag, the small wins of the day, and the occasional struggles that come with moving to a new city. In 2024, Darryl began a master’s degree program in Creative...

Alumni Spotlight: Nick van der Kloot ’83 and Angeline van der Kloot ’83

Written by International House on February 9, 2026. Posted in Alumni News.

Sakura Sweethearts Nick and Angeline van der Kloot’s story began, as many I-House stories do, with a simple everyday moment. They first met while standing in the serving line in the Dining Hall. Nick struck up a conversation and, as Angeline recalls with a smile, began flirting right away. He asked to sit at her table, then asked for her phone number, which she said she initially refused because “he was very handsome and already being admired by many others.” Not long after, Nick invited Angeline to attend a Russian Emigré Society ball at the Waldorf Astoria, and she agreed to go with...

Resident Spotlight: Aurora Martinez

Written by International House on October 9, 2025. Posted in Resident News.

Aurora Martinez left Nicaragua at age 16 in pursuit of a better education. As the eldest daughter and the first in her family to study abroad, she was accepted to United World College–USA (UWC-USA) in Montezuma, New Mexico. There, she spent two years at a boarding school for international students earning an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. From there, Martinez received the Davis UWC Scholarship to attend the University of Florida. As a Davis Scholar, she joined Semester at Sea, a program where students live and study aboard a ship while traveling the world...

Alumni Spotlight: Summer Scott Huyette ’73

Written by International House on October 8, 2025. Posted in Alumni News.

When Summer Scott Huyette ’73 arrived at I-House in the early 1970s from El Paso, Texas, she was pursuing her PhD in political science at Columbia, specializing in Soviet studies. She quickly discovered that I-House would be more than just a place to live. It would become her community. Looking back, Summer treasures the camaraderie and cultural exchange that shaped her I-House years. “My real social life was at I-House,” she recalls. “It was the perfect place for me to be.” She befriended residents from Russia, Egypt, and beyond during the height of the Cold War, and those encounters...

Resident Spotlight: Runting Luo

Written by International House on May 14, 2025. Posted in Resident News.

When Runting Luo first discovered I-House, she knew immediately that it was more than just student housing—it was the vibrant, global community she had been searching for. A graduate student at NYU studying Management and Analytics, Luo’s journey has taken her across continents. Originally from China, she studied in Japan for her undergraduate degree before arriving in New York to begin a new chapter of learning and cultural exchange. Luo credits her multicultural upbringing and early exposure to different languages for sparking her interest in international...