Pictured above are international students singing at the piano in 1957. L-R: Sonja Fogelberg, class of 1958, chair of International Student Committee; Yung Wha Kim (Korea), class of 1958; Teresa Doria (Italy), foreign fellowship 1956-1957, department assistant in Italian 1957, and certificate student 1958; Nicole Boudier (France), graduate student and language laboratory assistant 1957; and Brit Eseth (Norway), certificate student 1958.
What would an international student’s room look like when they first arrived on campus in 1947? Stocked full with crackers, jelly, and cheese.
To address all the necessities and comforts of international student life, and to ease their adjustment into a new cultural setting, the Mount Holyoke Foreign Student Committee was formed in 1947. The committee was comprised of students, faculty, and administrators. Faculty allocated fellowships and supplementary funds for emergencies or semester break trips. The student section decorated an international student’s room before their arrival, furnishing it with lamps, curtains, and bedspreads — and sometimes snacks as well. On arriving, “if she wishes, she is provided with free hair styling in the latest approved campus fashion.” Afterward, “she is bombarded with invitations to tea and informal parties.”
Many international students later got paired by the committee to become “guardian angels” of new international students in following years.