Alumni News and Notes

Ilaria Bosso and Philip Jonas at Buckingham Palace. Philip writes, “As I attended Summer School at London School of Economics (LSE) this year and lived in a dorm I know now even more that I-House is really special and unique. I still feel very connected and am in contact with so many residents from last semester. At LSE Summer School I met Ilaria, she lived in I-House too. Even my lecturer lived at I-House! So you see that the I-House spirit keeps on going.”

Erasmia Kitou and Michael Surowiecki were married in Greece in June. Erie and Mike met at I-House during Coffee Hour. Erie, who received her Ph.D. in engineering in 2002, is working on climate change issues. Mike received his MFE in 2002 and works in the finance sector. They currently reside in Brussels.

David Sulitzer from France stayed in the I-House in the summer of 2008 and writes, “The adventure didn’t stop there! After meeting so many great people from all over the world, I was not going to let it all go away!” David created a Facebook group called “Califriends” and organized reunions first in Amsterdam and then in Madrid where 25 people from seven countries attended. “The International House Spirit was back, only it was in Europe!” says David. “Califriends Reunion No 3 ‘cause Berkeley is wherever we want it to be!” View Califriends videos on our YouTube channel.

Andreas Schmidt volunteered to serve as I-House Country Contact in Singapore and hopes to help alumni in Singapore connect. Andreas is Chief Scientific Officer of Living Health Technologies at the National University of Singapore, Division of Bioengineering.

Yang Yang was selected as a “Goldman Sachs Global Leader” and went to Beijing for the award presentation ceremony and other events last spring. The program identifies students who demonstrate academic excellence and leadership potential and provides them with opportunities for leadership development.

Spring-Summer 2009 News:

Zahra Makoui entertained the guests of the Norooz Persian New Year dinner and 2009 Gala with wonderful belly dance performances.

Duc Pham exhibited his photography in an exhibition at Foothill College’s Krause Center for Innovation.

Babak Tamadon returned to I-House to accompany current resident Usree Bhattacharya on the guitar for the song “Heal the World” at this year’s Gala.

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Ilaria Bosso and Philip Jonas (right)

Erasmia Kitou (left) and Michael Surowiecki

"Maggie Cooper (IH 1996-98), my beloved sweetheart, and I finally married in Metuchen, New Jersey on May 27th, 2009, after 14 years together," writes Ahmed Usmani (IH 1993-95). "I saw Maggie the first time in Fall of ’95 when she came to I-House for Wednesday night coffee hour and just knew in my heart that this was the girl for me but I was too shy to talk to her. Fortunately, a common friend took pity on me and introduced us. We went on our first date to the Divali celebration in the I-House auditorium and since then we have been inseparable. Both of us remember our time at I-House fondly. I have been working as a research scientist for sometime on cancer therapies in the Bay Area. Maggie finished her Ph.D in 2008 in Neuroscience and recently started her postdoctoral training at Yale University. We have just moved to Orange, CT."

"We have dedicated a brick to demonstrate the affectionate place I-House will always have in our hearts since it was the place, which brought us together."

Xavier Casal visited in October soon after resigning his position as Minister of Transportation and Public Works in Ecuador. He will teach at the Universidad de Guayaquil as he continues his efforts to help the people of Ecuador. He writes, “My memories of my stay in I-House remain deep in my mind and my heart.”

Puja Kumar Bhutani (left) returned to I-House with her husband, Nitin, and children, Ishaan, age 7, and Arnav, age 11. “It was a nostalgic trip for me, as I showed my kids around the campus. It brought back so many memories of the time spent talking, arguing, and laughing in the Dining Room and on the I-House steps.” They live in Portland OR where Puja has a planning and urban design consulting practice. Puja was a recipient of the Rafael Rodriguez/Golden Age Scholarship created by alumni from the Golden Age era (see page 4).

Ruja Parikh Manghani and Raj Manghani write, “We met at the I-House and have been happily married since 1996 with two beautiful children - son Om, age 7 and daughter, Sonam, age 4. Our memories of I-House will forever be an integral part of our lives.”

Spring-Summer 2009 News:

Dinah Levy Groesser worked in cancer research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) before moving to Sweden where she worked at the Karlinska Institute in Stockholm. She returned to Berkeley where she continued working in cancer research at LBNL and met Torsten Groesser, a German scientist, at the lab. In February 2008 they were married in Berkeley and were blessed with a baby girl, Katarina Maria in November of 2008.

Jennifer Nagel writes, “It’s hard to believe 16 years have passed since I graduated from Cal! So much has happened in that time.  I married Robert Nagel in 1999 and have two beautiful children, Nicholas and Ann Marie.  I am a private practice attorney in Flagstaff, Arizona, where my primary areas of practice are family law, estate planning, and immigration law.”  Jennifer also serves as a judge with the Flagstaff courts. 

Susanna Zaraysky returned to I-House in May to lead a workshop on foreign language learning and budget travel.  She encourages people to become global citizens by traveling internationally and communicating in the local languages.  Susanna is author of Travel Happy, Budget Low: 190 Money Saving Tips to See the World and Language is Music: 65 Fun & Easy Tips to Learn Foreign Languages.

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Ahmed Usmani (left) & Maggie Cooper

Xavier Casal

Puja Kumar Bhutani (left)

Dinah Levy Groesser (right)

Susanna Zaraysky

K. Paddayya visited I-House with his wife (right) and family. He is the former Director of Deemed University in Pune, India, and writes, “Sweet memories reeled off my mind when I visited I-House in August. As a Fulbright Scholar in the Anthropology Department, I enjoyed and benefited from the spirit of camaraderie and friendship that permeated the House. It’s so nice to learn that the House continues to serve as an effective forum for promoting understanding among peoples and cultures across the globe. Still fresh in my memory are the friendly talks and discussions with students and scholars representing different nations and cultures.”

Kevin Renner is writing a book profiling 100 women from around the world, and how their life stories were shaped by their fathers. He welcomes inquiries or research volunteers, and can be reached at http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinrenner. Publication is expected in 2010.

Spring-Summer 2009 News:

Margaret Andrews recently accepted a position at Harvard University as Associate Dean for Management Programs at the Division of Continuing Education. She loves it and welcomes anyone in Cambridge to stop by!

David Bratt lives in San Francisco where he is renovating a house. He is a marketing writer for a website company in Silicon Valley. His father, Lars Bratt, was also an I-House alum and died in 1997.

Cliff Ho’s video, Solar Energy is H.O.T. !!!, won the video contest of the Discover Magazine in both the official judging and the viewer’s choice poll. The video describes how solar energy can address the world’s three primary energy needs: heating, on-site electricity production, and transportation. View it at http://nmscience.ning.com/video/sandia-researcher-cliff-hos

Babu Rahman (left) visited I-House in April with his wife, Sophia, a fellow Cal alum, and their two “future I-House residents.” Babu founded AGAMI, a non-profit that promotes education among the underpriveleged in Bangladesh.

David Rosania is the medical director of the Acute and Chronic Pain Service at St. Joseph Hospital in downtown Chicago and also oversees seven outpatient clinics throughout the Chicago area.  He still finds time to play competitive baseball and remains a Chicago Cubs fan. 

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Gwendolyn Bates Hickman writes, “I have just retired from 30 years of teaching French (and occasionally Spanish), the last 16 years of which were at Belleville East High School, in Belleville, IL. My husband and I plan to do lots of traveling and to move back to the West Coast, to Washington State. I have many wonderful memories of I-House and we’d like to attend an Elderhostel in the future.”

Architect Takuo Kanno performed at the Festival of Cultures in the spring and returned in July to lead a musical “fireside chat” and discuss the link between music, science and other fields. Taki played songs of Japan, Ireland, Russia, and other countries, interspersed with explorations of brain maps, world beginnings, and why the Japanese have incorporated so much music from other cultures into their own. The longtime radio host also broadcasted a radio show from I-House in October exploring the Universality of Music.

Slobodan Mitric, returned to I-House with his friend Hugo Tarazona and visited Martin Brennan. Slobodan is a traffic systems expert, retired from the World Bank, who studied at Cal under the mentorship of alumnus Wolf Homburger. Slobodan was visiting from Belgrade and also resides in Kensington MD.

Tiruneh Sinnshaw visited from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he is retired from a long career with UNICEF as Senior Programme Coordinator. He is a consultant in public health and development.

Ann Reid Slaby enjoyed a visit with Gunter Witzsch in Germany where Gunter practices law after retiring as a law professor. He is on the city council of Fürth and serves as a delegate to United Nations Climate Change Conferences. He worked in Kenya for the U.N., created the environmental laws for Lesotho, wrote a book about the global warming entitled From Rio to Kyoto, and wrote numerous articles published law journals. Ann writes, “Gunter and I had not seen each other in 40 years. I found his address on the I-House website a few years back and we began exchanging Christmas cards.”

Nancy Stock Tivol is the second generation of a three-generation I-House family. Her parents, Morton Stock and Rita Breslauer Stock were I-House residents in the 1930s and her son, Steven Tivol lived in I-House from 1991-‘93. Nancy writes, “My parents and I attended a Sunday Supper when Steve was living at I-House. He may have been one of the first third-generation residents. Other relatives in my parents’ and my generations lived there as well. I-House was a marvelous experience for all of us.”

Spring-Summer 2009 News:

Arlene Blum, Himalayan mountaineer, biochemist, and founder of the Green Science Policy Institute in Berkeley, was awarded a $100,000 Purpose Prize for her work mobilizing scientists, government, industry, and consumers to protect health by reducing toxic chemicals in our homes and the environment.  The award is given to people over 60 who are taking on society’s biggest challenges. 

Gregor Dallas is a noted historian and author of several books including  Metrostop Paris (2008), a collection of tales about the history of Paris inspired by travels around the city’s metro system.  Other books include The War-and-Peace Trilogy and At the Heart of a Tiger: Clemenceau and His World 1842-1929.

Hong Liu returned to I-House with two friends to cook seven wonderful dishes that were served in the Dining Room for a very special Lunar New Year dinner.  A native of Taiwan, he is the president and founder of Quanta Laboratories in Santa Clara CA which tests products for high-tech electronic industries. 

Bill Mills (left) and his wife, Kit, visited I-House in April during a trip around the world in celebration of Bill’s 80th birthday. Their home is near Port Elizabeth in South Africa where Bill is active with Rotary International.

Janet Willner Myers earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership in December and will retire in June after a 40 year career in elementary education.  What’s next? “Perhaps some college teaching, some tutoring, or some other new venture. But, part-time, so that I can play!”

Gail Reynolds Natzler (left) returned to I-House to attend the Gala and stay in the House.  A professional photographer, she is best known for photographing the ceramics of her late husband, Otto Natzler.  Both, Gail’s and her husband’s inspiring works have been exhibited in numerous museums and appeared in several periodicals.

Andrew Tanenbaum writes, “I am still a professor of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam where I have been for over 30 years. My research is about making operating systems reliable and secure.  I just received a grant from the European Research Council to continue this work for five more years.”

Carol Trust is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and enjoys many hobbies, including Argentinean tango.  She writes, “We (husband Boris and I) went to Buenos Aires at Christmastime to refine our tango technique and our ‘ochos’!”

Susan Marmon Wagstaff writes, “I had a lovely visit with Consuelo Lopez Morullas and Enrique Merino (I-House 1967-8) at their home in Calig, Spain. Both are recently retired from the University of Indiana.  I am working as a family therapist for the National Health Service in Reading, England.”

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Hugo Tarazona (left) Slobodan Mitric

Tiruneh Sinnshaw

Congratulations to Carroll Sheperd Hochschild and Richard Hochschild who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in July. The happy couple met at I-House in 1956 and now live in southern California.

Congratulations to Michael Parsont and Mina Raines-Lambe Parsont who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on July 5th. The couple met at I-House 55 years ago and were married in Paris. They recently moved to a senior apartment complex in Gaithersburg MD.

Isaiah Zimmerman, who is originally from Shanghai, is retired from his psychology practice and divides his time – together with his wife Susan Dowling – between Arlington VA and San Francisco. He recalls his days at I-House as a time of “warmth, great friendships, and a marvelous preparation for a multi-cultural world.”

Roberta Armenta writes, “This year, celebrating our 30th year of marriage, we travelled to Costa Rica and Alaska and cruised the St. Lawrence Seaway from Montreal to Boston.  Looking forward to a trip to Italy to explore the ‘boot heel’ along the Adriatic!”

Parviz Azari and Harriet-Ann Coates Azari write from Fort Collins, Colorado, “We treasure our memories of I-House!”

Barbara and Leroy Kuehl (left) from Utah returned to I-House with their family to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary – all wearing t-shirts created for the occasion.  They expected to enjoy a typical dinner in the Dining Room and were delighted to discover that dinner was a celebration of Norooz, Persian New Year, featuring a special Persian menu.

Bal Raj Sehgal is an Emeritus Professor of Nuclear Power Safety at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and continues to teach, research, and consult. He also enjoys travel for committee work and visits to children and grandchildren.

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Alumni gathered for a reunion tea in September 2009. Plan ahead and come see old friends at the next reunion on Sept. 26, 2010.

Ingrid Bergstrom Borland attended the Golden Age tea and enjoyed seeing a photo of herself as Saint Lucia with a crown of candles on her head. She recalls, “Eugenie Carneiro, the Program Director, organized so many activities. She asked different nationalities to share their traditions and one Christmas I represented the Swedish tradition as Saint Lucia.” Ingrid came to the U.S. as a nanny to learn English. “But it happened that the grandmother of my American family was interested in education for women. She told me I could work my way through college and within six months, I was at I-House, studying at Cal. When I came to I-House, it was a whole new world for me. It not only opened me up as a person, I-House opened the world to me.

Elizabeth Hudson Boba writes from Seattle, “I-House is one of the best ways of promoting world peace.  All best wishes for your success!”

Marcia Tillson Gedanken (left) recalls that she enjoyed her Red Cross work so much that she decided to come to Cal for her master’s in social work.  At I-House, she appreciated living in an inclusive community with people from around the world.  She fondly recalls the ski lodge built by I-House residents and alumni near Lake Tahoe, now part of Granlibakken Lodge.  Marcia, who met her late husband Bernard at Cal, worked for several child welfare organizations. In her final project before retirement, she worked with adoptive parents on the first inter-country adoption handbook.

George Hildebrant writes, “I-House was and is a guiding force in the 88 years I have lived.”

Bonnie McPherson Killip writes, “Even though I lived at I-House for just one summer, it had such a great influence on me and the experience helped me win a Fulbright Scholarship to the Netherlands in 1951.”

Francois Pinson writes from France, “In 1949, my roommate and I lived at I-House and I did not think that we would live so long! Our friendship remains as solid as our bones were then.”

Isaiah Zimmerman, originally from Shanghai, is retired from his psychology practice. He and his wife, Susan Dowling, divide their time between Arlington, Virginia, and San Francisco. He recalls his days at I-House as ones of warmth, great friendships, and a marvelous preparation for a multicultural world.

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