UAIS begins its first Middle Eastern Student Association
October 14, 2021
In hopes to increase awareness for the huge population of middle eastern students at UAIS, Junior Jules Shaman is starting the Middle Eastern Student Association. Their first meeting was held October 7th.
Many were shocked at how long it took for this large population to create a club, including the sponsor, Mrs. Hujdurovic. She believes that because of the “really big middle eastern population” she doesn’t see why it would take so long.
“Maybe they didn’t have anyone with a middle eastern background to sponsor it before I came,” she said.
Junior Giselle Sesi, a club member, believes the same. She thought others might be too scared to start a club like MESA.
“It’s a lot to handle, creating activities that many people will be able to enjoy, and actually represent the culture,” Sesi said. Most importantly, Sesi hopes to “meet people with the same culture as [her].”
Shaman understood where Sesi was coming from.
She said, “Creating a club is not an easy task. It definitely takes more than 1 person to construct.”
She then went on to describe the roles her fellow board members play in making the club the best it can be.
“Rosy, Mariano and I all work together to bring as much creativity to the club as we possibly can… Rosy constructs the social media page (UAISMESA) by adding reminders, meeting dates, and additional information that was not said at the meeting. When we want to have a meeting about a tradition celebrated for a long time, Mariano is the one that researches and brainstorms ideas of ways we could present it to the club. I work alongside Mrs. Hujdrovic by also aiding Rosy and Mariano in whatever they need. I send out the emails, think of possible meeting topics, contact outside sources for activities, and more,” she said.
Now that the club has taken off, Shaman plans to create many fun activities for the members to enjoy, such as “henna tattoos, dancing, or food days.”
“All students, middle eastern or not, are definitely welcome, encouraged even,” she said.
The end goal, Mrs. Hujdurovic said, is to “teach about culture and heritage.”
She feels that “the media displays [her] culture in a negative form” and she wants to try to show others “all the wonderful qualities” she feels her culture has.
