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ALUMNI REFLECTIONS
My wife Maggie and I were residents at IHP in the late 1990’s, and are now proud and active participants in the IHP Alumni Program. When we reflect on the mission of IHP, we can see how the mission of this special community has been breathed into our beings. Today, we see how we continue to strive to embrace the IHP mission in our personal and professional lives. We will always remember first walking in the front doors of IHP, being welcomed by the front desk and Resident Programs Office staff. The first thing we noticed was the richly diverse composition of residents and staff. Having both come from international experiences in Chile and Switzerland prior to our arrival, we were looking for a hospitable experience outside the homogenous US residence hall options in Philadelphia – and we sure did find it! We remember eating with our new neighbors on our floor, sharing different foods and customs, and engaging in icebreakers, games, and field trips with other residents. We recall heading to the café downstairs to meet new friends. In the end, we were all searching for friends and community, and the IHP leadership and staff cultivated these opportunities through programming and spaces to connect with others. International House Philadelphia broadened our horizons and taught us that another world is possible – a world where cooperation, mutual respect, and solidarity is achievable among people of diverse cultural backgrounds. We saw and experienced at IHP how this way of life is possible, and we didn’t want it to end after we moved out. We remember talking with IHP friends about how to continue to cultivate the values of this special community – dreaming of finding and contributing to new manifestations of IHP ideals in our next chapter of life! When we moved to Chicago, we sought out living arrangements and alternative ways of family life that would reflect those same International House values. Today, we are blessed to have lived in intentional community settings with transracial adoptive families and immigrants from around the globe. Friendship, cooperation, and respect are at the core of these relationships. Our children, Lukas (7) and Selamawit (5), adopted from Ethiopia, thrive in this diverse and welcoming environment – one that reflects the best of what IHP planted in our hearts and minds 15 years ago. In our family life, and our professional lives in educational institutions in Chicago, we feel most alive when we are a part of building diverse and welcoming spaces. We continue to seek out people, workplaces, schools, and faith communities that embrace this same IHP ideal – spaces that allow us to help contribute to that richness. In a big way, we’ve been transformed by IHP, as we cannot imagine living in a community that does not reflect that same diversity and welcome-ness. We continue to strive for increased representation
of people of diverse backgrounds in our lives – having learned from IHP that this diverse pluralistic community we seek will only enrich the civic, spiritual, and social lives of our communities. For this and so many other IHP friend ?[??Y? ?[??\?]?\? ?H\?H[[Y[??[ H?]Y?[HXY??YH?Y[??[??\??\??
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