“It’s a time for the community to get to know the international students and a time for the international students to get to know all the wonderful things that are in East Lansing,” Shelley said.

Midway through the event, a brief program featured welcoming remarks by MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, East Lansing Mayor Diane Goddeeris, a representative from the MSU Office of International Students and ScholarsSB and an explanation of future events and programs that will take place this upcoming fall.

“I learned from those speeches that there’s a lot of conversation events every Wednesday,” graduate student Hugo Huang said. “You can come by and have conversations with people to practice talking in English. Practice makes perfect.”

Along with city officials, the East Lansing Police Department and Parking and Code Enforcement, or PACE, came to further explain driving violations, how to handle criminal issues and to inform students that they are always available to help out and answer any questions.

Huang, who was concerned about his parking for the event, was able to confirm he was parking in a safe zone and avoided getting a ticket with a PACE officer.

East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy said attending the event is a part of being open, and the police department understands that in different countries the police are sometimes viewed as adversaries. The ELPD wanted to show the new students that it’s not that way in East Lansing.

“This is a big step in opening up communication,” Murphy said. “It will help us help them make everything a little better.”