The Cosmopolitan Club was founded in the year 1906 and as the oldest international organization on the UIUC campus, the Cosmopolitan Club has been serving the needs of American and international students since 1907. One of the founding fathers Abraham Epstein, class of 1911, came to the United States in this year to study engineering at the University of Illinois. In his first weeks on campus he met other students who had traveled from far away to study in the middle of the cornfields, including the son of the world-renowned Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore. Together these students formed the Cosmopolitan Club, adopting the motto, “Above All Nations is Humanity.”
As the historian Alan K. Laing writes: “This motto strikes one as remarkably symbolic of the idealism of the time and yet it is also remarkably appropriate to the ideas and ideals of many of the students of today.” It is remarkable and true that this insightful motto has never lost its significance in the past 100 years as can be seen in a quote from 2001 resident Josh G. Nickel: “The club’s motto, underscores its central cosmopolitan attitude and the refreshingly dynamic, culturally diverse cast of characters. Its emphasis on cultural bridge-building rivals anything else on campus.”
The Club acquired a house in Daniel Street in 1908 but the location of the Cosmopolitan Club on campus changed when the club moved into a beautiful white house under the trees at 307 E John in 1969. From the very beginning the club focused on a program of cultural interchange which featured lectures, music, dances, exhibitions, sports, exchange desserts, coffee hours, and many informal discussions. Cosmo, as it is called, is one of the only independent student organizations in the US that keeps on providing housing for international students and educational activities about various cultures.
The residents, as well as students and community members, who are interested in other cultures, attend international dinners twice a month and international coffee hours every Thursday evening. Probably whole books can be filled with memories and anecdotes from the many generations of international students who lived at Cosmo about these inspiring events such as the one from Milton Kramer who lived 1948 in the house at 605 Daniels: “Let me close with a memory of Sunday dinners. We were instructed each week that a coat and tie were mandatory. Herb Ciralsky showed up in just that attire, a coat and tie but no shirt or trousers and as he quietly ate we all roared.”
As Andrea Shields, the executive director of the Cosmopolitan Club for 17 years says: “It’s really the residents that represent the spirit of the Club and make the whole thing fly.” This is true but without Andrea many of us would not even learn to fly as very often a new environment in a foreign country can be sheer overwhelming. This feeling of arriving at Cosmo is captured very well by the Japanese exchange student Mariko Kurihara: “I could smell the peaceful living. That was my first impression of the Cosmopolitan Club. I couldn’t believe my ears and eyes. When I arrived in Champaign I couldn’t find which building I wanted to go to because of not understanding written English. When I entered Cosmo, I felt tremendous relief. I was attracted to Andrea like a mother of Cosmo, and I decided to live at Cosmo on the spot and moved to Cosmo on that day.”
On the day you are in the house your international experience starts. At what other place in this world can you share a house with 15 international students from 13 different countries? In many instances this experience lasts for a lifetime. “Being international” is not an abstract notion any more or not only a useful skill which can be put on ones resume, it is a reality at Cosmo. “My interest in other people continues in my work today, 55 years later. I teach psychiatric residents at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn where the welcome sign, when you enter the hospital is in 14 languages,” writes the fellow whose friend did show up for a dinner only in a tie and coat.
This cosmopolitan experience is very often more powerful and meaningful than any other circumstances you might encounter in your future life. In a letter from Angus Thuermer written directly after World War II this power can be felt: “Because of the Cosmopolitan Club I now correspond with the leading railroad construction engineer in Iraq. I am friends with one of the leading legislators in the territorial government of Hawaii; a young man in the Republic of the Philippines who fought in the hills for four years has his door open to me; in Iceland another new-though old nation, a warm welcome awaits me from a former Cosmopolitan. All these young men learned and believe in the motto of the Cosmopolitan Club: “Above All Nations is Humanity.”
He wrote that at a time when cultural and international exchange was almost impossible, at a time when the world was a humanitarian disaster, at a time when the notion of a global society seemed to be completely lost, the idea of the Cosmopolitan Club was still standing strong. It is very encouraging to stand on these shoulders of generations who felt the same way as I do about Cosmo.
I have lived now at Cosmo together with students from other countries and cultures for four years and this positive experience made all the difference in my life. It is only hard to leave such a great place but it was hard for others before me too as Brett Yuskewicz from Germany so nicely describes: “I’ve never had such a difficult time to leave a place before. The past years have been the best of my life, and I have the Cosmo family to thank for a large portion of my wonderful experience here.”
I am very happy that my Cosmo experience made me ready now to embark very soon on an exciting journey in order to teach English and cultural education in Colombia. Although Colombia has a reputation for crime, drugs, and violence, I feel very strongly that this is an exaggerated perception; there are many population centers in the United States that suffer just as much from these afflictions. The reason for this different perception is that I assess Colombia from the viewpoints and experiences I have learned at Cosmo. I see Colombia as a beautiful country full of versatile nature and culture, as a hospitable country because my Colombian friend Raoul Mora whom I met at Cosmo and who has already assembled a list of his friends and family who will be happy to welcome me when I am there. And finally together with the many people from all over the world who shared with me my life at Cosmo I am convinced that prejudices and nationalism are leading to nowhere but the motto “Above All Nations Is Humanity” is the passport for experiencing the greatest adventures in the world.
The best education I have received besides Cosmo in the United States was my wilderness semester with Outward Bound. In this course we defined what Outward Bound is standing for. It stands for a ship which is bound to leave. A ship can lie safely in a harbor but it is not made to stay there long, it is made to sail the ocean and go to different places. Cosmo was for so many years my safe harbor and during that stay I got shaped to the person that I am. My big international journey has just begun.
Thank you, Felix, for all you’ve done for the Club … we’ll miss you!