Library Extends Community Welcome to MSU International Students

(Photo courtesy of the City of East Lansing)

East Lansing will “Welcome the World” from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Library, 950 Abbot Road, in a celebration of the international students that attend Michigan State University.

The free event will be open to all community members and will include several activities, including crafts for children and chalk art, and an appearance by MSU mascot Sparty. The 3D printer will be on display to show community members that it is available to them.

Mayor Mark Meadows and MSU Director of International Students and Scholars Krista McCallum Beatty are two of the featured guest speakers, in addition to East Lansing Library Director Kristen Shelley. Sparty will also make an appearance. There will be police officers in attendance, in order to form connections between the ELPD and the new international students.

“The police chief and other people from the police department will engage with students on a very friendly level,” Shelley said, “so that your first time meeting them isn’t when you’ve had a car accident, or you did something that you weren’t allowed to do.”

The event is a way for the library to make the new students feel welcome and show what resources are available to them at the library.

“People who love the library come out and see what a great resource we have to them,” said Phyllis Thode, library development specialist. “They can come here they can get their library card. They can check things out rather than spending money on buying books. They can sometimes even get textbooks through a library loan.”

The library provides free opportunities to community members including an English practice group where people can come to learn and build their language skills. The library also has an assortment of books in different languages.

“l really welcome and help them understand that there are going to be huge cultural differences. And, laws that apply to them,” Shelley said. “So, we just want to give them resources -- like the police and different city department heads, and different agencies, so it’s just kind of a big welcome.”

For information, call the library at 351-2420.