Multicultural Clubs Creates Tight-Knit Communities

By: Jenna Jenkerson and Carlos Camargo

April 8, 2025

   With so many clubs at school, students have many options on what to join. From clubs dedicated to E-Sports to a club for Taylor Swift, students can make their own club and bring communities and individuals closer together. 

   The school offers multicultural equal access clubs. These five clubs are open to any student and celebrate the diverse cultures and ethnicities that exist within Colgan. Even though they meet under a specific identity, they all have the same goal: to bring people together and raise awareness about their identity.  

Muslim Student Association: 

   The Muslim Student Association has been a mainstay and has been at school longer than the rest of the multicultural equal access clubs.  

   Senior Inaaya Kashif, who is also club president, joined the club in her freshman year. 

   “I joined the club to find more Muslim friends,” said Kashif. “I'm from Pakistan, so I wanted to find more people from there.” 

   Kashif, who grew up Muslim, has said that attending the club has changed her relationship with the religion. 

   “It's honestly so nice to see different perspectives and different ideals,” said Kashif. “And for them to educate me, I think [is] really nice and interesting.” 

   Meetings often consist of trivia, games and even arts and crafts.  

   “My favorite meeting was the December meeting where we made prayer beads, because of the amount of participation,” said Senior Zara Meer who serves as the club’s Social Media Manager. 

LSU:  

   The Latino Student Union was created in the 2022-2023 school year.     

   Ali Rivera, one of the presidents of LSU, joined the club in her sophomore year when it was first founded.  The feeling of inclusivity heightened her interest, she said. 

   “I was really happy, especially when I was fresh here, it was difficult for me to find a community,” said Rivera. 

   The club emphasizes community and makes it a point to advertise that anyone is welcome to experience and emersed themselves in Latino culture. 

   “Anyone thinking about joining Latino Student Union should because no one has to be Hispanic to join, it’s open to everyone,” said Senior LSU member Samantha Trujillo. Just come in if you want to appreciate Latino culture.”  

  LSU offers its community a wide array of unique activities including competitive musical chairs and dance competitions.  

   “Come to Latino Student Union every other Thursday,” Said Rivera, “it’s really fun,” 

ASU: 

   The Asian Student Union was created to ensure Asian representation in multicultural clubs' offerings.  

   “I'm pretty sure the club was made after Latino Student Union and after BSU because we're like we need Asian representation,” said ASU member Judeleah Reyes. 

   One focus of ASU is integrating culture within their activities. They host an annual potluck for Chinese New Year and celebrate lesser-known Asian observances. 

   “We try to structure it on the exploration and discussing on differing Asian cultures and countries,” said Senior ASU president Leya Nair ’25. 

 ASU Advocates for 1recognition along with connecting with a small group. 

   “A lot of the Asian holidays aren’t off, so I mainly joined ASU to learn more about my Asian culture and these Holidays,” said Nair.

Arab Student Association:  

   The Arab Student Association is the newest of the multicultural equal access clubs. Started by Senior Yusuf Al Hajebi, the club received approval in January. They have only had a few meetings, but attendance is already high. Their first meeting consisted of a Jeopardy game specific to the Arab world.    

   “The people, they were all like asking a lot of questions and they wanted to know more,” said Al Hajebi. “We also just got a bunch of ideas from what they want from the rest of our meetings.” 

   Al Hajebi, a Palestinian American, started the club because he felt isolated from fellow Arabs and wanted to build a community.  

   “It's kind of hard to find any other Arabs,” said Al Hajebi. “I think by starting the club I actually found a lot more people and I feel like we could also connect more with our people. It's more fun to know that there's other people here that can relate to you.” 

   Junior Momand Nasrat is one of the members of the newly minted club. 

   “I joined the community to get in touch with my people and to communicate and get to know my people more,” said Nasrat.  

East African Student Association: 

   Members of the East African Student Association (EASA) said its main priority is one important night: Multicultural Night. Before the club was even created, founder Milana Zeraye ’25, alongside class of 2024 graduate Lidya Beniyam, decided to participate in the very first Multicultural Night in 2023. This paved the way for Zeraye and Beniyam to create the club.  

   “We kind of surround ourselves around Multicultural night,” said Zeraye, who is now club president. “That’s what brings the most people the fastest to know about our group.” 

   Although the club has had general meetings, meetings in the second semester are focused on the club’s performance at Multicultural Night. These meetings often take place at members’ homes. Their performance this year includes students from other schools.  

   “It’s definitely difficult,” said senior Rebecca Abraham, of the organization of the performance. “Mostly, we just have the officers get together and we’ll listen to a couple of our cultural songs, watch a couple of our cultural videos and you know, use that to make our own dance.” 

   EASA also has some challenges with its performance, with many new members never having performed before. 

   Zeraye said “getting everybody focused” on the performance will be key.