From One Generation to the Next

July 7, 2026

Alumni Spotlight: Laureen and Marciana Chang

Laureen Chang (IH 1973-74) had never visited International House until she moved in. She didn't need to. She had grown up on her mother's stories about living at I-House. Her mother, Marciana Kui Chang (IH 1946-1948) — turning 100 years old this July — had arrived at I-House only months after World War II when her hometown of Manila was liberated from the Japanese Occupation.

"When my mother tells her stories from I-House," Laureen says, "she tells them with great pleasure, which we felt. It was a happy time, a period of immense joy to have the freedom to study without worries about food, shelter or safety."

A Little Country Girl, Thousands of Miles from Home

Before coming to I-House, Marciana had never traveled more than 30 miles from home. "I was just a little country girl, very sheltered," she says. "And now I'm thousands of miles away all by myself."

Marciana describes her first days at I-House as overwhelming, but she quickly connected with her roommate, Peggy Post Grundland (IH 1946-47). "She was a very, very special person," Marciana recalls. "She was not just a big sister, but a mentor as well. There are so many cultures in America that I had never come across, and she would coach me in how to deal with them."

Later came her roommate, Birgit Henriques Bremen (IH 1946), six feet one, blonde, Swedish, and on an opposite internal clock. "She went to bed very early and got up at six o'clock," Marciana says. "I went to bed late and got up at eight o'clock."

Marciana Chang with I-House roommate Peggy Post

Marciana with her first roommate, Peggy, in 1946

Marciana with I-House friends on front steps

Marciana with I-House friends on the front steps in 1947

Marciana (left) and Birgit (center), with a group of I-House friends in 1946

Marciana would still be studying long after Birgit had gone to sleep. Birgit would wake up at night and find her small dark-haired roommate still bent over her books. Her solution was simple. She would pick Marciana up and put her on the top bunk. "Dear roommate," she'd say, "time to go to bed." They kept in touch for the rest of Birgit's life, visiting each other in London and Sweden over the years.

Then there was the Dining Commons. After a few months of living at I-House, Marciana walked in to find a long table of Chinese students, each calling out to her: "Have a seat here, Miss Kui, have a seat here." But only one young man stood up. His name was T.Y. Chang. He was visiting his uncle, a professor at Berkeley, and staying at I-House. "He was the only one who politely stood up," Marciana says. "So that's where I sat." They kept in touch by letter after he returned to his job in Oklahoma, and eventually, they married.

Thirty Years Later

Thirty years later, Laureen arrived at I-House as a 20-year-old studying for her MBA. She hadn't visited before, but she found I-House much as her mother had described it. Her first night, she sat alone in her room. "I thought, okay, well, now what should I do? I don't know anybody here. I guess I'll go down to sit in the lobby and see what's going on." She did, and someone came up and said hello. "I think it's pretty easy to make friends at I-House," she says. Within her first year, she made friends who are still close to her today — Kudret Oztap (IH 1973-74), from Turkey, whom she says carried her through accounting, and Heinrich Stucki (IH 1973-74), a Swiss-German engineer a decade her senior.

Over the years, Laureen and her family have seen Heinrich and his wife, Marie Jose, in Paris several times. "After all these years, the warmth was still there," she says. "He was still so happy to see me. I was so happy to see him." A New York visit with Kudret and his wife, Jackie Stanley (IH 1973-82), who also met at I-House, was another happy reunion.

Kudret (left), Laureen (center), and Heinrich (right)

Kudret and Jackie

Kudret, Jackie, and Marie Jose

Beyond friendships, Laureen says I-House gave her the ability to navigate differences with curiosity not judgment. "You can tell people anything as long as you have positive intent to help them," she says. "They may have just not known." That ease with people served her well in her career in corporate and international banking, where she worked with colleagues from Australia, Canada, and France. She traces it directly to her international experiences and year at I-House. "All of those are things you can only learn and share when you live with someone," she says. "There's no class for that."

Passing It On

"My mother's life is completely changed because of her I-House experience," Laureen reflects. "Not only because she met my dad, and I wouldn't be here otherwise, but also because of her many friendships that lasted over 60, 70+ years." Laureen's own life tells the same story. The friendships she made that year have lasted decades, and the valuable lessons she carried out of I-House have since been passed on to her own children.

Now Marciana and Laureen give back to I-House together, so that students today can have what they had. "When you live with people from different cultures, you begin to have a broader perspective on how you want to live your life," Laureen says. "You live with more curiosity about others and greater acceptance of who they are." One generation has passed that perspective on to the next. The Changs support and hope that new generations of students will have the same life-changing opportunity.