APARTMENT GUIDE1
27
NONTRADITIONAL
Caleb Sommerville/KANSAN
Stouffer Place apartments can provide a sense of community for international students who live there. 80 percent of the residents in the apartments are international students and their families.
International students fit in at Stouffer Place
BYTRIGG EDWARDS tedwards@kansan.com
For some international students, living in Stouffer Place apartments can help them cope with the overwhelming process of leaving home, country and family.
Around 80 percent of the estimated 2,300 residents in Stouffer Place are international students, or their family members. This gives the apartments an environment where different cultures and heritages are tolerated and shared.
Codoceo and his wife have been at Stouffer for over eight years now and as soon as this May they will return to their native Chile. "We now are so used to being here," said Codoceo, "It's going to be kind of chalky in a way... cause we have a life here already with friends. It's going to be difficult to leave our life here."
Sometimes residents will go years without seeing any friends or family from back home. One such resident is Hector Codoceo, Iquique, Chile, who came to the University of Kansas from Chile because his wife received a Fulbright Scholarship. "I knew nobody," said Codoceo. "You can find somebody from your country or the same area."
The residents of Stouffer hail from a vast array of countries including Chile, China, South Korea, Indian, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Seyool Oh, PhD Candidate, Jinhae,
South Korea, is the president of the Stouffer
Neighborhood Association. "Stouffer Place
is a unique place,"Oh said. "Off-campus apartments don't have a community". Because most of the students are international students, the established community greatly eases the transition to a new environment and culture.
The Stouffer neighborhood is self-governed by the SNA. They deal with policy rules and community building. Occasionally there will be meetings that deal with communal issues. The communal issues affect all residents whether they are students or not.
Actually, the family members outnumber the students. Most of the residents who live in the apartments are family members of students. SNA is funded by the University, but the funding is disproportionate because the school funds the group for each student, not resident.
Donald Claus, vice president of the Stouffer Neighborhood Association, has lived at Stouffer for more than seven years and has seen many of the residents' kids grow up in that time. "I was fortunate to live in Stouffer," said Claus. "You have people of all ages and people of many nationalities and so here at Stauffer there are lots of things we do that allow people to meet very quickly". Throughout each year, the neighborhood will host a various assortment of activities throwing charity slide on
Edited by Liz Schubauer
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- automatic renewal clauses
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- security deposits
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
FEBRUARY 26,2009