Issue link: http://ihouse.uberflip.com/i/1479405
Jacquelyn Meinen (IH 2005-06) remembered back to a time, five years after her I-House stay, when she "realized that I had Turkish, Aussie, Armenian, French, Romanian, Liberian, Guatemalan, Persian, Indian, Mexican, Salvadorian, Israeli, and American folks at my dinner party...all eating Italian food." She still misses I-House. 2010s Lukas Hackl (IH 2011) from Germany and Bilen Akuzum (IH 2011-12) from Turkey met in I-House and began their now ten-year long friendship. Lukas writes, "Staying in close touch…we motivated each other to apply to American Ph.D. programs... In 2019, we merged our research by initiating a collaboration between our respective research groups and starting our company, Aepnus Technology, focused on recovering battery minerals from natural waters. None of this would have been possible without the I-House pizza party at which we first met and the I-House music room in which we'd hang out after class to jam out together." Alex Mabanta (IH 2019) was the recipient of the 2021-22 UC Berkeley Chancellor's Award for Civic Engagement. Alex is a Ph.D. student in the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at Berkeley Law. He has served as a member of the Chancellor's Building Name Review Committee, which, since 2018, has recommended the unnaming of four campus buildings (Boalt Hall, LeConte Hall, Barrows Hall, and Kroeber Hall). He has also served as a Chancellor's Public Fellow with the American Cultures Engaged Scholars Program and as a member of multiple boards for a variety of non-profit organizations, many of which focus on justice for immigrant communities. 2020s Chan'Cellore Makanjuola (IH 2019-20) is a multimedia journalist at International Leadership of Texas. Her short documentary, Affirmative, is currently on the festival circuit. 18 International House Times In spring 2022, Steve Rogers (IH 1986-88) and Ana Wood married on the shores of Lake Hancock, Florida. The gathering included eight I-House alumni (members of the "Uhuru Avenue," a group of friends from the 1987-89 years). The Uhuru Avenue, which includes over 35 alumni, celebrated their 30-year reunion at I-House in 2017. From left to right: Barbara Calhoun (IH 1987-92), Kalyani, Dr. Ramnarayan Ramachandran, Linda Liaw (IH 1985-87), Amado Caliboso (IH 1987), Mimi Noorani (IH 1987-88), Steve Rogers (IH 1986-88), Ana Wood, Liz Joseph, Hitesh Mehta (IH 1987-89), Kamal Bharucha (IH 1987-89), Ketan Desai (IH 1987), and Bindu Desai. 1990s Chloe Michalopoulos (IH 1996-97), who studied linguistics at Cal while living at I-House, is a bilingual speech language pathologist in Orange County, California, and tutors individuals in Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Sharlene Ratcliff (IH 1991-93) recently established a new non-profit organization called Graceland Meadows Animal Rescue and Sanctuary located in Ossining, New York. Rudi Matuschek (IH 1996) visited I-House while doing college tours with his daughter Olivia. Olivia says that she has "heard about I-House all of my life." She hopes to one day live in I-House to experience it for herself. 2000s Nicholas Bridgman (IH 2002) writes, "I just released a new album, called Blue Horizon, that features band members I met online during the pandemic in 2020, from Montana, Indiana, and Maine—and we recorded entirely by overdubbing using our computers and Dropbox. You can listen to the album for free at www.nicholasbridgman.com" Alumni News & Notes