Now, as the director of events for the International Students Association,
he’s helping to ensure all international students have a chance to try some turkey this holiday weekend.

“The international students on campus, a lot of them don’t have their hometown or a place to go during Thanksgiving,” said Alsadah, a supply chain management junior. “We want them to experience the warmth and the experience of Thanksgiving that their American classmates usually experience every year.”

The International Students Association, Council of Graduate Students, or COGS, Graduate Employees Union and University Apartments Council of Residents, or UACOR, are co-sponsoring a free Thanksgiving dinner at 7 p.m. today in the Spartan Village Community Center’s south lounge.

About 25 percent of graduate students at MSU are from outside the country, COGS President Stefan Fletcher said.

After attending the event last year, Fletcher said many international students appreciated the chance for “friendship and fellowship” and learning about Thanksgiving origins.
He plans to attend the dinner this year as well, but will be sticking mainly to cleanup work, he said.

“No one wants to see me cook the turkey,” Fletcher said.

To help cook for the dinner, graduate students across East Lansing volunteer their freezers and ovens, Graduate Employees Union President Sam Otten said.

Right before the event, a crew drives around and picks up all the food, he said.

“We try to make it a family-friendly event,” Otten said. “It’s designed with an eye toward international students, but we say anybody can comAe.”

The event is in its third year and grew from 50 people in 2008 to about 100 people last year, Otten said. The groups are expecting about 100 to 150 attendees this year and plan to cook six turkeys, said Rupinder Sayal, a COGS representative.

Andrew Cooper, Graduate Employees Union vice president for organizing and outreach, isn’t an international student, but he’s originally from Texas and wasn’t able to go home for Thanksgiving when he first came to MSU.

With the typically dreary weather and deserted campus, he understands why international students can feel lonely during the weekend, which is why he helped to create the event with the International Students Association three years ago.

“(For) international students that come here, Thanksgiving isn’t one of their traditions, but they get bombarded by the media and all the students talking about Thanksgiving and how wonderful it is,” Cooper said.

“We decided it probably would be a good idea to fix that.”

Attendees of the event also are invited to bring ethnic dishes from their own countries so the event is a cultural exchange, he said.

This is the first year UACOR has co-sponsored the event and UACOR co-chair Rahman Shah Zaib Saleem said Spartan Village and Cherry Lane Apartments house a significant
number of international students.

“As part of the American experience, it’s important for an international student to attend at least one Thanksgiving,” said Saleem, an international student from Pakistan, in an e-mail.

Although Alsadah said there is no direct equivalent to Thanksgiving outside of the U.S., they still celebrate holidays with the same values in Saudi Arabia — getting together with friends and family to have a nice meal.

The event helps provide a “home” for international students to experience those traditions, he said.

“Most of the holidays across the world involve a lot of people in one place and (celebrating) the warmth around you,” Alsadah said.