New ISA Reunion Information

Today,  April  6, Sunday  11:10 PM

Hello Again!

If you are reading this for the first time, this is your invitation to attend a once-in-a-lifetime reunion of friends from your Ohio State University days.  Come to Columbus and join us for a celebration  of friendship from our younger days.   The International Students Association  (ISA)  at The Ohio State University  became our extended family at that time.  Columbus was our hometown for some years and our academic advisers became the father/mother  figure to whom we went for advice.

SAVE THESE DATES:

May 30 – 31  and June 1,  2008

International Student Association Reunion at The Oho State University in Columbus, Ohio

HOTEL ARRANGEMENTS:   Register immediately for hotel reservations  at a reduced rate.  Scroll down to registration site.

ABOUT US
This is a partial list of the ISA Presidents from the collective memories of the reunion organizers.

        1967-68  Mohammed Kurmally
        1968-69  Ato de Graft Johnson  #
        1969-70  Vince Ferranti
        1970-71  Marianita Albano
        1971-72  Vijay Sathe
        1972-73  Sinyan Shen
        1974-75  Shed S. H. Rizvi  # *
        1975-76  Don Faxon

#  We need your help in providing an  e- mail address or other method of contact

# * Our apologies to Mr. Rizvi for the error in identifying someone else as ISA President for this period in the weblog ( 01/12/08)

The years selected are not in any way more significant that other years before of after.  Simply, these represent the OSU years when most of the ISA reunion organizers developed these lasting  friendships  by keeping in touch with one another.        
 
ISA  REUNION ORGANIZERS

My name is Cres Guerrero Ricca and I am responsible for writing, publishing,  and maintaining this weblog :   
                                              www.isareunion.org
 
In   Autumn 1967, I started working at The Ohio State University as Assistant to the Director, Miss Ruth C. Bailey. My first responsibility  was learning about the organizational relationship of the International Students Office (ISO) and  the Dean’s Office of Student Affairs. The number of international students at the time was less than  200,  a small percentage  of the total OSU student body.   My other  major responsibility was to encourage interaction among international students and American students.  As the office representative, I was to assist ISA  in planning  and providing support for their programs and activities.

Remembering:   most of the programs and activities of ISA were conducted on the first floor of George Wells Knight International House  (GWKIH)  at 104 East 15th Avenue.   Although this was a men’s residence for graduate students, the first floor was open for both genders.  There was a was a spacious  lounge, a reading room, and an equipped kitchen for preparing and serving food which we were missing from our home countries.  Friday night  was a party night,  which was open to all students seeking friendship and a happy time.  There was  always music and dancing,  mostly the Latin beat, the twist,  and other tunes  popular at that time.

The ISA activities were  spontaneous and needed no advance planning.  Sometimes, we would bring something from our own kitchens to share at somebody’s apartment.   Marianita Albano’s  apartment at Neil Hall was a popular gathering place  and  there was no need for a special occasion to host a  party.  It was such a natural way of making friends and  if one got lucky  -  meeting that Somebody Special. 

In 1971, I got married to Le Ba Tuan (Tom Lebatuan Ricca)  from South Vietnam whom I met just by doing my office responsibilities responsibly.  When he completed his Ph.D. program in Electrical Engineering, I resigned from ISO  to join him in Saigon  where we planned to make our permanent home.  The end of the Vietnam war in April 1975, ended that dream.  We  came back to Columbus with our young son.   Once more, we linked up with our ISA connections. We  had kept up correspondence with Miss Bailey, who was very helpful in  providing me  good recommendation to  OSU to the position of Foreign Student Adviser  – my lucky streak was still there!

I had a very interesting career in international educational exchanges but I was ready to retire from the University in 1997 – - – to do other things , like planning the ISA reunion.

More About Us and the ISA Reunion
 
This ISA reunion is not sponsored by the Ohio State University and  the University is not providing  any financial assistance.  The ISA reunion is entirely a personal commitment of individuals like Marianita Albano, Marlinda Sardovia Iyer, Alma Saddam,  Melinda de Guzman Harty and Kevin Harty. 

Kevin holds  the distinction of having occupied  several levels of administrative positions in international programs and activities at The Ohio State University,  After the retirement of Miss Bailey in 1975,  Kevin continued to work with   the new director, Miss Dorothy Brickman (1971- 1987) in the Office of International Students and Scholars (ISSS).
 
The third director,  Dr. John Greisberger, took over a well-run office for international education and services.  The ISSS office moved from Lincoln Tower to Oxley Hall and the name was changed to Office of International Education (OIE),  1987- 2007.  Dr. Greisberger term of appointment  was characterized by a  broad independent review of  The Ohio State University’s role  in the twenty-first century,  Gradually, OIE  was  preparing its students for life in a global community.   This period promoted overseas work experience and/or study abroad to American students. 

These changes resulted in another direction of administrative reporting. The OIE Director  reported  to the Office of the Provost  while maintaining its organizational relationship with the Office of Student Affairs.  Kevin was appointed Assistant Director to assume additional responsibilities including relocating their offices in other parts of Oxley Hall .  In 2007, all international programs, services and activities including the academic faculty  involved in the Study Abroad programs reported to the Office of the Provost for International Affairs.

Visit the new web site of the Office of International Affairs (OIA)  where Kevin’s many talents  come in handy as the Program Manager.  Kevin  is responsible for arranging the guided tour of the campus on Saturday morning, May 31 for the ISA reunion.  Thank you, Kevin.

                                          www.oia.osu.edu

In recognition of Kevin’s contributions to the University’s role as an agent of global diversity, he was awarded the 2007  Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Awardee  at The Ohio State University.

Melinda de Guzman-Harty is currently enjoying a very interesting position as Senior Scientist IV at Boerhringer-Ingelheim Roxane, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio.  Her research concern on the structural characterization of and developing analytical methods for active pharmaceutical ingredients in drug formulations.  She also writes up documentations for Product Filing to the FDA.  Her other responsibilities involve providing laboratory safety programs and mentoring Junior scientists .  Melinda is a charter member of the Roxane Diversity Council.  All of the above, Melinda is also Kevin’s most influential “adviser”. We nudge her when we need help from Kevin.

Hotel arrangements with discount  rates at the Holiday Inn on the Lane,  328 West Lane Avenue

After Marlinda Sardovia Iyer  did a survey of area hotels in Columbus;  she found a good offer from the Holiday Inn on the Lane,  north of campus.  Marlinda arranged for 10 rooms at the rate of $99.00 per day.  We need to receive ten (10) reservations by Tuesday, April 15, to sign the contract.  Each room is furnished with a King size bed or two double beds.  All for $99.00!

Here is a fast  way to reserve a room:  Send in your reservations by e-mail to:  cresricca@sbcglobal.net 

Send your reservation before April 15,  2008 with your full name and a residence address.   Expect a quick response from us and your name will be forwarded to the Manager  for hotel reservations.    You will call a toll-free number to register and pay with a credit card.

If we do not receive 10 reservations by April 15,  the organizers will not be able to sign the contract. ISA guests can still register directly to the Holiday Inn on the Lane for the same rate of $99.00  until  May 9,  2008 (Friday) .  BUT  only for available room.  After May 9th, the hotel rate will go up to the holiday’s rate of $159.00.

Marianita Albano and  Shirley Manchek,  with their bright smiling faces, will greet you with hugs at the lobby of Holiday Inn on the Lane on Friday morning (May 30).  They will provide you with the latest schedule of activities and collect the cost of the catered dinner on Saturday evening.  Until we know exactly how many people are coming to the reunion ,  a modest estimate  is between $30 to $40 for each individual.  Shirley recently returned from  traveling in Iceland chasing the sun!   She deserved a vacation after months of   putting together hundreds of photographs of our ISA years.  She will display these pictures  at the ISA reunion site for our pleasure;  at the end of the reunion, she will give them away as souvenirs.  We suggest you bring your own collection to share, too.  We appreciate Shirley’s thoughtful and gracious contribution to refreshing memories.

Alma Saddam,  our Food Specialist, is Chair for the Saturday night dinner.  We will be announcing the details as soon as you register  your attendance  at the weblog site  (REGISTER HERE)   found at the end of this weblog.  Alma,  in your taste, we trust!

Among our out-of-town supporters of this reunion are Vince Ferranti and his wife Sharon (Virginia),     They are  our host and hostess for the  May 30, Friday evening reception at the party room on the top of Holiday Inn on the Lane.  Vince has been the consistent  ISA cheer leader when it comes to reunions or getting us together for remembering those good old days.  We appreciate his thoughtfulness and generosity.

Our first responders to the invitation to the reunion were  Vijay Sathe and his wife, Shanu (California),  Dhyneshwar Chawan and his wife,  Charulata( New York),  Mukul Mehta and his wife, Renu  (Ohio).   Vijay will take a late  flight Friday  after performing his professorial duties at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management in Claremont, California. Mukul  and Dhyneshwar  are two brilliant gentlemen in interesting  and successful  business pursuits.

Derry Habir wrote us from Jakarta where he is  Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at the Swiss German University located in that city.  Derry and his wife Toshiko  travel together, meeting at different places whenever they can.  Toshiko is currently writing her dissertation in Fine Arts at the University of South Wales.  We were delighted to learn  they found us on Google and hitting the ISA reunion web site.  He writes that he and Toshiko had been “reminiscing about our time at OSU and wondering how we could get back in touch with old friends.”  We hope they will spend part of their summer with us at the ISA reunion.   Derry  mentioned his meeting with Anita Dighe while she was traveling in in Jakarta some years ago.

Friends of Roland Berty will be happy to know that he and his wife, Zenia  will travel from Costa Ricca  to be with us at the reunion.  Expect humor  “mucho grande” with all his jokes  as  a Grand Master.

Sinyan Shen, in Woodbridge, Illinois wrote that they were away for a month, spending it in Sorrento,  you do remember that song of our times!  He was coordinator of the Global Warming International Conference for the State Department.  He sent us a list of friends with his greetings for :  Mukul Mehta, Dhyneshwar Chawan, Shirley Manchek, Alma Saddam, Mohammed Kurmally, Marianita Albano, Marlinda Sardovia, Vijay Sathe, Vince Ferranti, Kevin Harty and Roland Berty.

 

In November,  Lydia Alcantara and Alma Saddam took a trip to Australia  which included a cruise to New Zealand.  We understand that they  brought back many pleasant memories dining at the captain’s table.   You will have to ask them why they did not bring back the Captain.

The following names  are  additions  to a previous list we posted in January.   PLEASE HELP US WITH THEIR E-MAIL  ADDRESSES.   Or, you can forward to them our weblog address:  ISAreunion.org

    Tunji ABAYOMI
    Nageshwar Rao BHASKAR
    Mark Anthony EDWARDS
    Farida KHORASSANI
    Mei-Yu LAI
    Raquel D. RAMIREZ
    Shed. S. H. RIZVI
    Rajendar SHARMA
    Anna Maria SONNEMANN
    John and Maria VAN DECK
    Bello A. YAKASAI

Thank you for your help.

 REGISTER HERE:  You are helping the organizers to plan the activities by completing this registry.  Thank you.

Please click on the comment link and leave the following information
 *  Your full name:
 
 *  Attending the ISA reunion   YES           NO        MAYBE

If  attending,   Number of guests (including yourself)  = Total

  *  If  attending Friday evening May 30)  Welcome and Reception  at the Holiday Inn on the Lane ,  
      check here  _____

  *  If attending Saturday night dinner at the Sokol residence,  check here   _________
 IMPORTANT  NOTES

While we are hopeful to meet all of you who are on our mailing list, we understand you may have other commitments.  Still we would love to hear from you and if you wish, we will keep your name in the mailing list.  Out of the 30+ names to whom we sent the invitation  to the ISA reunion, only three came back as wrong addresses . 

The Welcome Party  on Friday evening (May 30) is hosted by Vince and Sharon Ferranti.  We are so pleased that after  about 40 years, these loving and generous friends are still practicing the warm Italian tradition of hospitality and good will.  Remembering:  evenings at their apartment in West NInth Avenue with Vince making pizza after pizza  for a bunch of  hungry ISA members.

While we are not declaring any dress codes, come as you feel comfortable.  This will be an informal and a convivial  company.  

Bring walking shoes for the Campus tour and an umbrella or raincoat if  it is just one of those Columbus light showers . The group will meet in the lobby of the Holiday Inn on the Lane on Saturday morning.  The time will be announced during registration and again at the Friday night reception.

The  Saturday dinner at the house of Barbara Sokol is located at  2346 Fishinger Road.    Again, we need the registration numbers to complete arrangements for rides to the location.  Unless there is a nostalgia for German Village or some itchy feet  eager to go dancing,  that can be arranged later,

We do not have any dress codes at the reunion.  We do love to see our ladies  from India wearing their beautiful saris.   Come and  relax.  Enjoy the company. We will ask  Barbara if the swimming pool is ready for those wanting to swim before dinner.

Sunday (June First)  is an open book.  We are watching for the registration numbers to make a choice among possibilities – a picnic, a choice of buffet lunch/dinner at  many ethnic restaurants to choose from.  The ISA reunion organizers agree that the goal  of the reunion  is to visit with one another , to bridge the years we have not seen one another and to look forward to some cooperative ventures for the future.

We appreciate the long and late hours of technical advice and assistance  of Ramon Ricca, in the process of publication  of this weblog.  And many thanks to my dear husband for his support in  this endeavor.

For the past – Happy Memories
For the present – Good Fortune
For the future – Peace on Earth
                 — Author Unknown

 

 

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