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Carl Sandberg (Sweden), President
Carl Sandberg, from the Kingdom of Sweden, is a junior at Silliman College, majoring in Global Affairs and Economics. Before college, Carl served in the military as an interpreter in Arabic and subsequently lived in several countries in the Middle East. It is from there his interests in economics and international relations come from. He loves travelling, preferably with a guitar and a friend as company. In the future, Carl aspires to be an explorer and mountaineer, having visited 42 countries and one of the Seven Summits so far. At Yale, Carl has found a new home among friends in the International Students Organization and elsewhere around campus. He is a devout fellow of the Scandinavian Society, and enjoys playing tennis and soccer.
Phi bi dil hai Yale.
Urvi Nopany (India), Vice-President
Urvi is a junior from Kolkata, India and a proud member of Silliman College. She is insterested foreign affairs and journalism. She is a staff reporter for the Yale Daily News, an editor of the Yale Entrepreneurial Magazine and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma (insert crack about sorority girls). She is technically a part of Silliman College but her real home is Blue State café on Wall Street where you can usually find her hyped up on caffeine and banging out articles for the YDN.
Liang Yu (China/South Africa), Vice-President
Liang is a junior in Berkeley College. She spent half of her life before Yale in Beijing, China, and the other half in Pretoria, South Africa. As a result, she often hears people question her Chinese appearance and South African passport, and secretly enjoys possessing this double identity.
At Yale, she is currently majoring in Astronomy & Physics, but she has also been initiated into the somewhat random and unrelated fields of chemistry and psychology in the long, troubled process of choosing a major. Outside classrooms, research labs and the ISO, Liang spends most of her time serving as a Peer Liaison for the Yale Visiting International Students Program. She also loves writing poetry, drawing, painting and performing as a classically trained soprano, both on the stage and in the shower. She’s looking forward to a great year with you all.
Dur e Aziz Amna (Pakistan), Social Chair
Dur e Aziz hails from Rawalpindi, Pakistan and is currently a sophomore in Berkeley College. She is interested in English and History and will be majoring in whatever lets her worship words and sentences. Come talk to her about black tea, Persian poetry, Jim Morrison, or whatever else sounds artsy and useless. She hopes to provide you guys with some amazing nights out as ISO’s Social Chair this year.
Madeleine Barrow (Australia), Cultural Chair
Maddy is a rising sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College. She is from Melbourne, Australia, and loves enlightening Americans about strine. Although unsure about her future studies, she is considering a double major in physics and economics, and is spending the summer in Switzerland looking for new particles.
At Yale, Maddy plays violin in and is manager of the Jonathan Edwards College Philharmonic, has a job at the art gallery, and has been involved in a range of publications, cultural organizations and JE shenanigans.Some of her non-Yale pursuits have included sharing a dressing room with Santa, eating wasabi icecream in Sydney, playing cricket with apples at midnight outside a physics lab, and somehow being at a prom with Katy Perry. After travelling internationally for physics competitions and university, she loves learning about different cultures, and dreams of a job that lets her explore the world. In her spare time she likes to read, write, eat delicious food, and play violin.
Maddy is excited about the cultural council this year - please come up to her with any ideas about fun food events, awesome artsy projects, spectacular sports sessions or anything that piques your interest.
Themis Davris (Greece), Secretary
Themis was born in Germany but raised in Athens, Greece. He is a sophomore in Berkeley College and is planning to major in Mechanical Engineering while pursuing his interest in Economics. At Yale, Themis is involved with the Hellenic Society and loves playing tennis and basketball with friends. He loves good food and he is a great supporter of the Greek Soccer Club Panathinaikos. Every summer he can’t wait to show fellow Yalies around the beautiful Greek islands and party with them for as much as possible. Being the Secretary of the ISO for this year, he is looking forward to having a truly amazing time with all the Internationals.
Angie Hanawa (Peru), Public Relations
Angie is a sophomore in Ezra Stiles College from Lima, Peru, where she was born and raised to the surprise of the people who hear this. She is double-majoring in Environmental Studies and Political Science as she dreams of saving the Amazon, and maybe even the world, from the looming environmental crisis.
Aside from politics and the environment, Angie finds in philosophy a guilty intellectual pleasure since she forwent all courses related to any of her two majors in order to take classes in the Philosophy department freshman year. Interested in literature and international affairs, she also secretly loves Romance languages, speaking her native Spanish as well as French and Portuguese (Japanese is the odd one out, but she insists that she is not proficient enough for it to count).
Interested in anything international and environmental, she is involved in countless extracurriculars (more than she cares to admit). She is in the board of the Arabs Students Association, Accent; Yale’s Multilingual Magazine, Project Bright and is a World Fellow Liaison aside from her role as Public Relations Chair in the ISO. In addition, she is an active participant of Yale’s International Relations Association.
When she is not running around from EC to EC, she enjoys watching American dramas and late-night trips to Ivy Noodle or Flavors.
Owais Karnee (Pakistan), Political Chair
Owais Karnee is a sophomore in Branford College from Karachi, Pakistan. He is a(n almost) sworn pre-med interested in History, Global Affairs, Politics, Physics, French or some combination of these. He is also a big fan of Christopher Nolan and late night takeouts. Owais is a Liaison with the Yale World Fellows Program and Political Action Chair of the South Asian Society. He hopes to talk politics with you soon.
Takaomi Konari (Japan), Outreach Chair
Taka is a junior in Morse College, majoring in economics. He is from Yokohama, Japan, and graduated from Eiko Gakuen High School in Kamakura, one of the oldest cities in the country. He lived in Japan his whole life before coming to Yale, except for 10 months in his sophomore year in high school during which he stayed in Texas as an exchange student. On top of Japanese and English, he speaks Spanish proficiently, and has elementary level knowledge of Chinese.
At Yale, he has been involved with ISO Cultural Council, where he took the initiative to organize International Lunch Tag, Sailing Team, and Morse College Housing Committee. In the spring semester of sophomore year, he studied abroad in Beijing by taking advantage of Yale-Peking University Joint Undergraduate Program. He likes whistling when he has free time, and has made an album with an International Whistling Champion.
Stefano Malfitano (Italy), Webmaster
Stefano is a junior in Berkeley College, double-majoring in Humanities and Economics & Mathematics. He proudly hails from Voghera, Italy where he attended the local Liceo Classico "G. Galilei".
His academic interests lie in Macroeconomics, German Idealism and the Internet of Things, on which he is conducting a research at the JP Morgan senior fellows research program at Yale School of Management. He hopes to combine these fields coherently in order to have a broader and deeper understanding of contemporary social realities.
Besides Italian, English and French, Stefano is also fluent in Chinese, which represents another important passion of his; he is a Light fellow, a Fung Fellow and a Field Scholar and has spent the last three Summers learning, living and interning in China. He is currently studying Arabic at Yale, and wishes to pursue his studies further in the Middle East.
In his free time, Stefano loves reading poems in Latin and Ancient Greek, playing volleyball, learning programming (Javascript, Ruby), writing pretentious bios, or simply enjoying the blue sky on a sunny day.
Devika Mittal (India), Treasurer
Devika Mittal is a rising sophomore hailing for, New Delhi, India. At Yale, she is involved with the ISO (woohoo internationals), the South Asian Society, Cupcakes with a Heart, Yale Daily News and YIRA.
In terms of majors, she's hoping to be a Psychology and Global Affairs double major, if she gets it. In her free time, she likes baking, tinkering with her camera and meeting many, many new people!
Welcome to the new ISO website!
...and welcome to Yale’s International Students’ Organization!
With over 750 members, ISO is Yale’s largest cultural organization and is omnipresent on campus. Our cultural, political, social and financial councils organize Yale’s biggest cultural show, the best parties on campus, debates and panels with global leaders, and sessions to help students with the logistics of living abroad. Past events have included (free!) international food nights, discussions with royalties and politicians from near and far, tips for getting an American driver’s licence, and the Ibiza Beach Party.
Think any of this sounds interesting? Whether you’re an international student or a curious person exploring our website, we’d love to have you involved. Look out for us at OIS, the Extracurricular Bazaar, and at our launch event at the beginning of the year. Until then, please feel free to contact us with any questions: we will be happy to reply as soon as possible.
Thank you,
The 2012-2013 ISO Board
the Councils and their roles
Councils are the building blocks of the ISO. The Social, Cultural, Political and Financial councils each serve their own distinct functions, while collaborating with one another to enrich all aspects of international student life at Yale. Each council is headed by a chair, but its bulk is composed of enthusiastic students who wish to become closely involved with the international community or turn their ideas for projects into reality. To learn more about the activities of the four councils and how to join them, please visit the webpages of the individual councils.
On top of the four councils, ISO includes two stand-alone chairs, Outreach and Relations, which play a very important role at ISO.
.social/Dur e Aziz Amna
The ISO’s Social Council is arguably its most vibrant one. Internationals at Yale have the reputation of being great people to party with and the Social Council works every year to keep this up. We arrange various parties and mixers, sometimes in collaboration with other organizations. A lot of work goes into making these events successful and we are always looking for new faces and fresh ideas in the council. Come party with us!
.cultural/Madeleine Barrow
The cultural council coordinates cultural activities for the Yale community. Last year, events organized by the council included an international food night, a cultural show, guest speakers on intercultural relationships, a trivia night and an ongoing lunch tag competition, and this year, the events are up to you! Come along to cultural council meetings to share your ideas, and visit our events. Hope to see you soon!
.political/Owais Karnee
The Political Council provides a forum for discussion and debate of important political issues. In past years, guests at panels and talks have included Heads of States, Royalty, Ambassadors, Diplomats, Economists and eminent journalists. The Council is a great way to share your ideas and opinions on political happenings all around the globe. Hope to see you there!
.financial/Devika Mittal
This year, the Financial Council is going to be the best and most fun it's ever been! In charge of the money that the ISO earns, we'll be holding lots of fund raisers (such as the much anticipated annual Date Auction) and getting high profile leaders of the financial sectors to campus.
.public relations/Angie Hanawa
This coming year will see some changes in the ISO’s PR scheme. The ISO’s already well-established presence on campus will be amped up with more aggressive guerrilla marketing strategies such as video campaigns and flash mobs. With a decrease in printed advertising as an effort to be more environmentally conscious, expect more innovative ways of finding out about the various ISO activities!
.outreach/Takaomi Konari
Outreach chair, simply put, works to extend invitations to as many Yalies interested in working with ISO as possible. If you are a member of student organizations looking to collaborate with Iso, I'm here!
The people ISO reach out to are not just current students. Outreach chair is also in charge of keeping in contact with international alumni, and maintaining Alumni Database.
If you're even slightly interested in what ISO does, hit me up!
the Alumni Network: ISO after Yale
The ISO is proud to announce the launch of its most ambitious endeavour - an international alumni network.
Already boasting over interested alums, the network is a means for international students to interact with their predecessors and access exciting work and internship opportunities across the globe. The network will also allow the relationships created at Yale and through ISO to continue even after we graduate and scatter to our very different parts of the world.
Together with events such as the ISO World Fellows Internship panel, we aspire to create a forum for international opportunities for our members and for Yale as a whole.
Browse the Database
ISO Events at Yale
13September
International Reception, @Luce Hall, 5:00 - 6:30 PM
Staff of the MacMillan Center and OISS welcome all new and returning international students and scholars to Yale with great food and dancing! Join us on the Luce Hall lawn for this annual celebration - enjoy the company and the late summer weather.
7September
Ibiza Night, @Thali Thoo, 10PM
Traditionally, Ibiza has always been the first ISO party of the year and the kick-off to an awesome year! If you're sad that summer's over, relive some of those beach experiences at Thali Too with your fellow Yalies! DJ Hanoi, DJs Akshay and Ishan.
Entrance Fee: $5
3September
Extracurricular Activities Bazaar, @G.W. Bush Hall, PWG
Come and meet the board at ISO booth at the Yale Extracurricul Activities Bazaar. We will discuss the role of ISO, our past and future events, and explain how joining ISO will be the best things occured to you in your life!
31August
OIS Reunion, @International Center (OISS), 421 Temple Street
Already missing your new friends from all over the world? Come and join ISO for a cheerful reunion, with free food and time to discuss the buzz of shopping period.
22August
OIS Epic Talent Show, @SSS 114
The most anticipated event of OIS, the Epic Talent Show is the best occasion for international students to interpret and express their own culture and their expectations on Yale in a funny and entertaining way.
Reach Us!
Feel free to contact us with the form below. Don't forget to include your name, email and academic affiliation and we will reply as soon as we can. Thank you for your interest on ISO.
Designed by Stefano Malfitano, Class of 2014