House
helps students adapt to America
By Yi-Fang Vicky Lin
On-line Forty-Niner
Students
are sharing their cultures and diverse lifestyles
with one another in the International House
at Cal State Long Beach.
 The
International House pairs up students from
different countries to live in the same
room. This match up system, usually one
domestic student with one foreign student,
grants students a chance to learn from each
other.
The house has been established for 15 years
and was built under former CSULB President
Steve Horn’s international vision.
“His vision was that we are built as the
international city and he wanted us to do
things that can reflect that. One of his
dreams was to have an international residential
hall on campus,” Stan Olin, interim director
of Housing and Residential Life, said.
He raised some money from the community,
collected donations and used state money
to build a building that was a little nicer
than all the other buildings, Olin said.
This newer residential building not only
provided students with fancier landscape
design, but most importantly, it provided
more space compared to other residential
halls on campus.
“The first thing that attracted me was the
architecture. It doesn’t look like a dorm,
it looks like a skyline, so I was really
excited about it,” said Elson Browne, an
ex-resident from Barbados.
Browne recalled his experience of living
in the International House as a family atmosphere
for many foreign students.
“My roommate was the one that took me to
get my driver’s license. He was like a big
brother almost,” Browne said.
Unlike other residential halls, students
are able to stay during the holidays. According
to Browne, this brought students closer
together and offered each a chance to learn
and share.
“It’s like a win-win situation. You learn
about America and you learn about other
countries that either you may or may not
ever visit,” Browne said.
An American student enjoyed her experience
living with her Australian roommate. Golnar
Lashgari, a biomedical engineering student,
said that even though she and her roommate
shared similar language and politics, she
still felt they were so different.
“[Australians] are much more free thinkers
than we are,” Lashgari said. “I loved the
way she talked, Australians shorten everything,
that took me forever to understand.”
She said the setting of International House
would make foreign students disseminate
and adapt to the American culture easier
than living in other residential halls.
Available accommodations are another reason
foreign students live in the International
House. Lashgari’s roommate, Melonie Beard,
a senior from Australia, said that she applied
to the International House because she would
not have to go back home during holidays.
“American and Australian are so different,”
Beard said. “I learned new words and new
expressions from my roommate.”
Many activities are especially designed
for international students to enable them
to interact with American traditions, Olin
said. He emphasized the “building function,”
which is the resident assistants’ duties
to plan out activities that draw residents’
interests.
“Since it is an international house, they
put an international flavor on it,” Olin
said.
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