Physiology sophomore Islam Said volunteered at the event with the group Spartans Rebuilding Michigan. Said, who is of Egyptian descent, said he thought the event was a great way to reach out to a different community.

“I think the event is really nice,” he said. “It’s a good way to meet other international people. It’s a good way to get them integrated into Michigan and help them out."

Said said he met an Egyptian woman who told him he was the first Egyptian she had met since arriving in Michigan.

That woman, Doaa Allam, is a visiting scholar on the Humphrey Fellowship Program. She said she came to the event to meet more people in the community.

“I’m totally new to the U.S. generally, and East Lansing specifically, so I thought I’d come," Allam said. "I’m always busy in my academics, so I found it was a good networking tool and great to learn about the public library.”

East Lansing Welcomes the World has been put on annually since 2010. It moved to the library in 2012, East Lansing Public Library director Kristin Shelley said.

Several booths were put out for residents to learn more about the community and see what kind of resources were available to them through the Community Volunteers for International Programs, or CVIP. Some programs advertised were English tutoring, volunteer work for East Lansing residents and international students and information about the Lending Center, a center where international students and visiting scholars can borrow houseware for the duration of their stay at MSU.

Shelley said she encourages international students and residents to use the city’s resources for help on anything they might need to get familiar with the community.

“They can come to the library or go to City Hall,” she said. “There’s a plethora of information at both places."

There are other organizations on campus for international students to use, director of the Office for International Students and Scholars James Dorsett said.

There are more than 30 student organizations for students to join that represent different countries, religious affiliations or cultural affiliations, Dorsett said. There is also the International Students Association, an organization for all international students to get involved in.

In 2015-16, there were approximately 7,600 international students and approximately 1,000 visiting scholars, he said.

Dorsett said the university wants to make a good community for international students and scholars and one way is to bridge the gap between domestic and international residents.

“We want to help the internationals to have as good as an experience as they can, and want to help our domestic students and the community understand that this is a really vibrant group of people that they can learn so much from if they take the opportunity to get out of their comfort zone and get to know these folks,” he said.