By Selah Hurd, Staff Writer
When junior Kayla Rood moved into the International Apartments this fall, she was not just unpacking boxes; she was recalling years of cultural learning, friendship and faith shaped by living with roommates from three continents.
“You don’t realize culture until you’re living in close proximity with someone who lived in very different water than you,” she said.
Rood is the vice president of Wheaton’s International Apartments Cabinet and spent her formative years living in Japan. Her two previous roommates, Naomi Eckdahl and Anna Peters, grew up in Senegal and Washington D.C., respectively.
When Rood discovered the International Apartments (IA) through a campus-wide email, she and her friends, all interested in student leadership, felt the opportunity was perfect for them.
IA consists of two units located in the Michigan Crescent apartments that house the cabinet members of the IA program. There are seven students this year, and one graduate student serving as advisor. The apartments were first proposed by the Student Government Association (SGA) during the 2017–2018 academic year. In partnership with International Student Program (ISP) leadership, the first IA cabinet launched in August 2018.
Rood said that after two years of friendship with previous roommates had been shaped by navigating their cultural differences, she saw IA as an opportunity to share what they had learned with the wider campus community.
This year’s cabinet is all-female — unlike the usual mixed-gender leadership team — and, according to its members, it’s off to a start with their “Unboxing IA” kickoff event. The event included snacks, card games and Mario Kart.
“IA is special because the cabinet lives and works together,” said Jerry Woehr, director of International Student Programs. “It is crucial to their missional goals for the year” — pursuing intercultural hospitality and collaboration, and inviting the college into that.
Gracie Lee, a junior English major and the president of IA, discussed how IA relates to other ISP programs. She said IA provides “more of an intimate space for family-style gathering” rather than campus-wide events hosted by other organizations in the ISP. Lee added that her hope for IA this year is to “be able to show what intercultural living and friendship look like.”
Lee explained that IA hosts a variety of events throughout the year — some where IA invites a particular campus organization into their space for a shared meal or activity, and others are open to the whole campus. IA is for missionary kids (MKs), third-culture kids (TCKs) and F-1 visa international students, as well as the broader community.
Sara De Almeida Santana, a second-year graduate student in the clinical mental health counseling program and the graduate assistant advisor for IA, recalls the program’s residency style with fondness. “With IA, you do an event at home, you clean up, and you still see each other,” she said. “It’s such a beautiful experience.”
Rood hopes that sense of community will extend beyond IA’s residents. “So I would love if the campus joined us in our craft and karaoke nights and tea times,” she said, “to come and talk with one another and talk with us about the ways that we’re different, the ways that we’re the same and the ways that God calls us to love one another in that.”
