At International House Berkeley, You Find Home Among Strangers

September 14, 2026

How International House Berkeley, a Diverse Residential Community Steps from UC Berkeley, Helped One International Student Trade an Atlas for Real Friendships

By Yusuf Olajuwon Akinpelu(IH 2025-27)

Yusuf Olajuwon Akinpelu As a kid, I memorized every country in the world and its capital, even though I didn't visit any of them until after college. The atlas was my toy. I was fascinated by contour lines, borders, and hard-to-pronounce city names.

That childhood fascination has grown into a lifelong desire to learn about people, places, and cultures — and International House Berkeley has turned the page on that lesson for me. This multicultural student housing community, just steps from the UC Berkeley campus, has let me explore countries I once knew only through maps, flags, and capitals, all without setting foot on a plane. It has brought the beauty of diverse cultures and global communities within eyeshot, no binoculars required.

Everyday Cultural Exchange at UC Berkeley

One moment you're sitting in the Dining Commons next to a student from the fjords of Oslo. The next, you're in the game room with someone from the coast of Karachi, or reading in the library beside a student from the hills of Addis Ababa.

You might rave about the Bolivian salteñas you ate last night, then wake up the next morning to a plate of pavlova. When the food is this good, your taste buds stop noticing borders.

I've learned to say “Qué pasa” (what's up, in Spanish), “Ingat” (be safe, in Tagalog, spoken in the Philippines), “Mo ho te sɛn” (how are you all doing, in Twi, spoken in Ghana), “Kya haal” (how are you doing, in Urdu), and “Ha det bra” (literally “have a good one,” used as goodbye in Norwegian).

This is the magic I-House works — it hands you tiny pieces of the whole world. I arrived a stranger, wheeling two 23 kg suitcases up the paved walkway of Piedmont Avenue, and found a home among other strangers.

The United Nations of UC Berkeley

A friend in the house calls this place the United Nations of students, and he's right. As one of the most diverse student housing communities near UC Berkeley, I-House doesn't just expose you to other cultures — it teaches you to understand and appreciate them. It has taught me empathy: the ability to feel what someone else feels and see the world from where they stand.

I sat with a Sikh resident in the hallway and learned that unshorn hair (kesh) and a beard covered by a turban (dastaar) symbolize identity, dignity, and a commitment to accepting God's will. Sikhism centers on belief in one God, reverence for the Guru Granth Sahib as the eternal Guru and Sikh scripture, and the teachings of the ten Gurus who founded the faith.

I met a Druze man from Lebanon and learned how his community has preserved its identity as a religious and ethnic minority in the Levant by keeping its faith closed — meaning it does not accept converts or allow intermarriage. International House gave me a front-row seat to a community I might never have otherwise encountered.

Over the past year, living in this multicultural community near campus has deepened my appreciation for the diversity of humanity. I've come to realize that everyone, regardless of color or background, shares similar desires and struggles. There's even a word for this: sonder. Coined by John Koenig in 2012 for his project “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows,” sonder is the realization that every person you pass is living a life as vivid and complicated as your own, full of their own ambitions and worries — and that you are only a minor character in each of their stories.

That realization is what led me to launch a digital project called “Unbordered,” a weekly series celebrating the uniqueness and beauty of the people of Berkeley, their backgrounds, and their cultures.

Dance time at the West Africa DiversiTea & Coffee Hour in spring 2026.

Draped in leopard print with my Puerto Rican friend at the Southern Africa DiversiTea & Coffee Hour.

The talking drum takes center stage, entertaining diners at the West Africa Diversitea.

Bringing the beat to diners at the I-House Dining Commons with the talking drum.

With my Pakistani brothers celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr, the joyful close of Ramadan.

From Stranger to Home: Belonging in a Global Student Community

Too often, our view of a place is colored by a single, mostly negative headline — usually about a government, which changes over time, rather than about the people themselves: their culture, heritage, history, food, dress, music, literature, and inventions. Living among I-House residents has made one thing clear to me: no matter what shade or shape we come in, we are fundamentally the same. Geography may separate us, but humanity unites us.

Ask me for my biggest highlights from living here, and I might mention hosting the West Africa DiversiTEA & Coffee Hour, or emceeing the second Spring Sunday Supper. But even those moments are minor compared to the people I've met, the friendships I've built, the memories we've shared, and the broader perspective I've gained as part of this international community.

Like many residents, I arrived in the U.S. in fall 2025 as a stranger. At International House, I found a sense of belonging. That feeling of home isn't rooted in the building itself — it's engraved in the connections I've made here.

At the end of last academic year, I considered moving off campus to try a different kind of American experience. But my heart stayed tied to I-House. Now I'm back — this time as Marketing Lead, doing what I love most: telling stories about people, places, and cultures.

A cross-section of I-House diversity: me at center, flanked by performers from the Second Spring Sunday Supper.

A cross-section of I-House diversity: me at center, flanked by performers from the Sunday Supper in April 2026.

Celebrating with friends after Cal women's basketball defeated Stanford at Haas Pavilion.

Yusuf Akinpelu with Luay El Bitar, his Druze friend from Lebanon

With Luay El Bitar, my Druze friend from Lebanon

World map with heading, "The Map of Who We Are. 614 Residents, 71 Countries represented, Median Age: 21

With residents from 71 countries, including the U.S., for the fall 2026 semester, I-House truly is the United Nations of students.

About the Author

Yusuf Akinpelu is mastering multimedia storytelling at UC Berkeley’s Journalism School as a Mastercard Foundation scholar. He was a reporter and producer at the BBC World Service, covering West and Central Africa. He also coordinated the BBC Africa’s visual and data journalism team, creating digital and visual journalism content that was translated into 12 languages. He loves telling stories about people and places through their cultures and history.