Huo, an accounting freshman, arrived in Aug. 19 East Lansing from the province of Shandong in China. She said she’s talked to her worried parents more than a few times since.

“The first week I talked to them (on the phone) once a day and after a few weeks of my moving maybe every three days,” she said. “I tell my family I am fine here, and I repeat it a thousand times.”

Huo is one of a growing number of international students who seek to make MSU and East Lansing their second home.

After a record number of 5,056 graduate and undergraduate international students came to MSU last year, the East Lansing and MSU communities are working to ensure students receive the support they need through a new East Lansing community ambassador program and continued university outreach.

“They are our neighbors, not just visitors,” Assistant City Manager Marie McKenna said.

Choosing MSU

MSU has the tenth highest number of international students in the country, according to the Open Doors annual data report for the 2008-09 school year. Topping the list is the University of Southern California, which has 7,482 international students enrolled.

The 5,056 international students came from 133 countries ranging from France to Kenya, according MSU’s Office for International Students and Scholars, or OISS. International students have accounted for about 10 percent of all MSU students in recent years, OISS Director Peter Briggs said.

Although numbers are not available for this year, the number of international students likely will increase slightly this year, Briggs said.

Students are drawn to MSU for various reasons, most commonly the university’s academic reputation, Briggs said.

“It’s a world-class university,” he said.

For Huo, part of the decision was based on recommendations from current international students.

“My friend’s sister is in this college, and she said the school is very nice,” she said. “I also checked a ranking about this school and accounting at this school.”

Having a high number of international students creates an atmosphere conducive to scholarly work with diverse people, said Xuedan Han, an MSU graduate student from China. MSU is full of other international students and faculty, she said.

“I can get a variety of different cultures,” she said. “I can get more time to do my own studies and research.”

The MSU community is understanding of the concerns of international students and fosters a global environment, making it more appealing to international scholars, said masters student Tomo Kobayashi, who came to MSU from Japan.

“We can learn different cultures and backgrounds (and) they bring many different ideas,” she said. “We should have more environments like this.”

Community outreach

East Lansing’s newly launched community ambassador program will supplement the OISS’s efforts and encourage international students to explore the area surrounding MSU, McKenna said. About 60 local residents signed up to be ambassadors. It joins a mentoring program started more than 50 years ago at MSU.
People who are familiar with the area and have experience living internationally can particularly benefit students new to the country, said Ivy Su, a longtime East Lansing resident and community ambassador. Su moved to the U.S. from Taiwan to work at MSU decades ago.

Programs providing assistance to newcomers have not always existed, Su said. She said she had handled concerns ranging from grocery shopping to winter clothes virtually on her own.

“You don’t have to be a student to feel very insecure and very much like a stranger in a new land, in a new country (or) in a new town,” she said.

The feeling of not knowing where to go or who to talk to is something Su hopes to remedy as a community ambassador.

International students face all of the challenges of any new college students but with another layer of difficulty, Briggs said. OISS offers a variety of programs to help them find resources and connect with the surrounding community, he said.

MSU’s Community Volunteers for International Programs, or CVIP, extends a warm welcome and helping hand to the international students and faculty by connecting them with volunteers and other people in similar situations, said Iris Horner, a member of the CVIP executive board.

The increasing number of global Spartans has caused an increase in CVIP’s need for volunteers, she said.

“There’s always a need for people to be welcoming of the international community,” Horner said. “They are the future, and we can make a positive influence on them.”