Enrollment in the international programs department at Colorado State University-Pueblo has increased by 22 percent this year.

The 126 international students who are responsible for this increase hail from 38 countries.

With 20 students, China is the most heavily represented country in the program.

“We have a great partnership with a recruiter (for China),” said Marissa Munger, administrative assistant for the center for international programs.

Munger also attributed the overall increase to the efforts of the university’s four recruiters.

The recruiters, who most largely represent Germany, Latin America, South Korea and China, use a variety of tactics to enroll the students.

These strategies include attending recruiting fairs and “armchair recruiting,” which allows them to reach prospective students without having to travel.

Once students decide to attend CSU-Pueblo, most of their business at the university is done through the center for international programs.

“We’re the frontline defense for the international students,” Munger said.

The center curates the enrollment process, registration, schedule changes and much of the students’ lives on campus.

The CSU-Pueblo International Students Association is another resource available to the students. Members of the association wanted to emphasize that the club is open to all students.

“We want Americans to join,” said Jose Lopez, CISA president.

Current members of the club represent South Korea, Mexico, Nepal, Iraq, China and Brazil.

The international students noted the benefits of studying in the United States, and for Nishesh Singh of Nepal, “moving from a third world country to a first.”

“I became more independent,” he said.

The students also discussed the differences between their countries and the United States, noting that Americans pick out differences more readily than citizens of their countries.

“We are almost the same,” Anais Verenisse Escobar said of citizens in her native Brazil.

She said that, for example, since most Brazilians are Catholic, people there do not talk about Catholicism often.

Singh also said Americans “practice their freedom of speech.”

CISA meets every Friday at 2:30 p.m. and encourages students of all nationalities to join.