Applications to join the Intercultural House are open to all undergraduate students from Columbia College, Columbia Engineering and Barnard College.

The Intercultural House (ICH) is the residential component of the Intercultural Resource Center. Thirty-four students, who support the goals and objectives of the Intercultural Resource Center, live together in a unique brownstone setting. The ICH offers an opportunity for sophomores through seniors from a variety of backgrounds, interests, orientations and belief systems to live together in a community that fosters individual growth and unity. The ICH serves to advance student learning through a residential experience integrating self-awareness, multicultural and intercultural communication skills and social justice education.

Through a series of educational programs, training and workshops aimed at enhancing resident’s knowledge about oppression issues, residents will gain the skills and competencies necessary to be agents of change in their lives and in their communities. Students who live in the house are expected to take full ownership of their experience by collectively and individually raising awareness amongst each other and creating programming for the larger Columbia community that reflects the values and mission of the IRC. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to interface with organizations and agencies outside of Columbia’s campus as a means of understanding how oppression operates within a larger societal context.

Students who live in the ICH will have the opportunity to live in a truly diverse community, gaining exposure to new people and ideas. Within this context, residents experience both intellectual and personal growth and are able to integrate what they have learned into their daily lives. The Intercultural House attempts to transcend the fragmentation present in society by highlighting the commonalities in student’s experiences and building coalitions across difference.