A new Intercultural House across from the Northwest College campus was hailed last week as “a place of inclusiveness” and a place “to create welcoming, supporting and engaging programs that promote diversity, cultural awareness and student success.”

Those visions were shared by Harriet Bloom-Wilson, former director of the NWC Intercultural Program, and the program’s current director, Emelee Volden, during the Sept. 3 dedication of the Intercultural House.

Bloom-Wilson envisioned years ago a place that would “broaden the experience, the welcome, that we were already extending to international students from all over the world.”

That vision became a reality through a $131,000 grant in 2011 by the National Endowment for the Humanities and additional fundraising since then by the Northwest College Foundation, under the direction of Executive Director Shelby Wetzel, who also was instrumental in obtaining the grant.

In all, $500,000 was raised for the purchase and renovation of the former Copenhaver house for furnishings and artwork, and to create an endowment for use for programming at the Intercultural House, said NWC President Stefani Hicswa.

Hicswa said Northwest College offers “unparalleled diversity.”

Bloom-Wilson said she hopes the house “will be seen as a good neighbor in our community; an asset to our campus; a place of inclusiveness at a time in our history when nothing is more important than coming together to talk about what we have in common, and overcoming our fear of what makes us different.”

She said the Intercultural House will be a comfortable and inviting home away from home for international students.

In addition, Bloom-Wilson said she envisions the house “as a place that welcomes all campus and community members to come together around conversations and presentations that broaden our minds, and to share in the celebrations and rituals that lift our spirits and define us as humans.”

Volden said the Intercultural House also serves as a residence. This school year, it is the home of Natsuki Kobayashi of Japan, a Japanese language fellow who will team teach Japanese classes with assistant professor Milo Asay. Kobayashi also will help with presentations and discussions at the Intercultural House about Japanese culture and her experiences there.

Volden said she loves telling people where she lives and her work with the Intercultural Program at Northwest College.

“The look on people’s faces when I talk about this is priceless,” she said. “Nobody expects to meet people from this part of the country, from a community college that focuses on these types of endeavors.

“Many people around the world assume that rural communities in this country are void of any efforts of understanding difference, and that a lot of community colleges don’t focus on international or multicultural education.

“This house, the Intercultural House, is prime evidence of that support for cultural understanding that comes from Northwest College.”