The Missouri Students Association Senate’s Multicultural Issues Committee is hosting its first Multicultural Week.

Events began April 21 and will continue until Friday. On Tuesday, the MCI is hosting a panel called “Coming to America: An Immigrants’ Mizzou Experience.” The panel will feature MU students from around the world.

“Essentially, we reached out to a lot of different students who were originally born in other countries,” MCI chairwoman Lakeisha Williams said.

Williams said they will be talking about the cultural differences they have noticed between their home countries and the United States during their time at MU.

MSA Senator JoMarie Infranca was excited about the panel.

“It’s going to bring together students who have come to the U.S. from all different countries and try and break down those barriers that students kind of have,” she said. “I would like it to confront the stigma of immigrants.”

The panel will take place at 7 p.m. in the MU Student Center’s St. Louis/Kansas City room.

Multicultural Week will end with the Life Music Series on Friday at The Shack. The event will feature music from R&B artist Tony Henry.

MSA senator Will Schmitt worked on the Life Music Series throughout the semester.

“My role for this was to help plan a music showcase that would focus on world music,” he said. He ran into trouble finding a venue, but the Legion of Black Collegians reached out to MSA with a venue.

“That resulted in the Life Music Series,” he said.

Multicultural Week kicked off on Friday, April 21, with a SWIPES event at Emporium and Time Out. Students had the opportunity to buy food with their meal plans and donate it to Rainbow House.

Schmitt said so far, SWIPES has been the highlight of his week. He said he saw one girl donate over 30 meals worth of food.

“That outpouring of generosity, that actually touched me,” he said. “That was pretty cool to see.”

On Sunday, April 22, MCI hosted the Multicultural Eat and Greet at the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center. The event featured food from around the world and was attended by different multicultural organizations.

Monday was “Mix It Up” day.

“It’s kind of a suggestion for students to branch out and meet other people of a different background,” Williams said. “Just something different from what’s ordinary for them.”

Students who participated in Mix It Up day sent a photo of themselves spending time with new people to MSA and earn a prize.

Williams, a senior, will be giving up her chairwoman position to Infranca next year. Infranca said she plans to continue Multicultural Week.

“I think this week will hopefully continue to next year,” she said.

Schmitt said he hopes he is able to work on Multicultural Week again next year.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to streamline and make it more efficient,” he said. “Multicultural Week again would be fantastic. I’m already excited about it.”