International students on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University are excited to once again be apart of this year's annual homecoming parade, since it is the only big event that they will participate in this year.

"We participated for the first time last year, so we knew it was fun and we wanted to do it again," said Raphael Pellenard, president of Southeast's International Student Association. "At first we were trying to show the diversity of Southeast, and we knew that the parade would be good to participate in."

According to Pellenard, Southeast is becoming more aware of international students being a big part of the university.

"Last year it was kind of a struggle to organize the events, but every time we did it was very successful," Pellenard said. "But this year, everything is going smoothly. We haven't had any big event yet, but this homecoming parade will be the first this year."

Pellenard said students will be painting their faces in their respective country's colors for the parade, and will have their country's flags.

"For example, if someone is from Japan, they'll have their face painted white and red, and they'll have their flag, and we'll pretty much do that for every country," Pellenard said.

Students will also be in the traditional dress of their country.

"If a student is Japanese or Chinese, they will be wearing their kimono," Pellenard said. "We are also going to have flags and sing. We will be together in the parade, but the countries will be mixed. We will all be singing songs. It should be nice."

Pellenard also said that instead of hosting several little events, ISA tries to do just one big event, which this year is the parade.

International students mainly just participate in the parade, according to international student Orphee Ondo.

According to Ondo, there will be a lot of painted faces, and a lot of energy in the parade.

"Last year, some other students organized events at their houses and invited everyone," Ondo said. "This semester, the only thing I heard about was the parade, but I think a lot of students will want to go to the game."

Even though international students don't necessarily understand the entire concept behind homecoming, many of them enjoy it simply because of that fact that they are able to get involved with activities on campus, according to Suzanne McKinney, assistant director of international programming at Southeast.

McKinney said that international student participation in Southeast events has increased from previous years. She also said that Saudi students are the second largest population on campus, and are now more involved in Southeast events than ever before.

"All students are welcome to join us for the parade, because we will have people from the United States holding their flags. So if some people would like to be in parade and join us, it would be a pleasure. We'd love to have more people in the group," Pellenard said.

According to Ondo, the homecoming parade is really about being proud to show his country's flag, and showing the community that his country is represented at Southeast.

"They're going to go out and have a heck of a time. And they're going to put on a show, and chances are a lot of them will just be walking with their flags, but they will be having a blast," McKinney said.

Southeast's homecoming parade will take place at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 20.