One hand can’t clap

Today I was writing a book review for one of my classes and I came across this quote that reminded me of us, the Syrian Club: “You never know beforehand what people are capable of, you have to wait, give it time, it’s time that rules, time is our gambling partner on the other side of the table and it holds all the cards of the deck in its hand, we have to guess the winning cards of life, our lives.” ― José Saramago

Last year we established the Syrian Club in Illinois Institute of Technology since we felt that this could be our voice as Syrians on campus. Of course with each year and each experience we face, we develop our leadership skills and our voices. So for the year of 2013-2014 we felt that it’s time to expand our horizon and look for more.

Now our board is a team of five Syrian students, Vice President: Zeina, Treasurer: Tony, Events Coordinator: Mazen, Publicity Manager: Raed. However we are not only five who are working for the best of the organization. We are 32 students who are working together for the success of our events and vision, because as my title says: “one hand can’t clap”.

As part of our goal and mission we are going to organize some cultural events that will introduce people to Syria. So I would like to announce a few of these events.

Our big event this semester is the Syrian Culture Day. This event will be our way to show people the Syria that was part of making the world’s history and also learn more about the sub culture in Syria. The goal of our Syrian Culture Day is to enhance and showcase the diversity of IIT’s community, engage more people and attract more Syrians and non-Syrians into our organization. Also we want to show other students how the Syrian culture is much more than war and death. We have a rich culture and beautiful heritage.

Our second event will be the Arabic lessons; this event was a big success last year. We worked on it with other organizations and we plan to keep doing it every year since our Syrian group of students is growing each semester. We keep getting requests from IIT students that we should teach Arabic because everybody now wants to know what these 32 students are talking about. We see this event as a way to help other non-Syrian students explore the Arabic language and it will add a lot to the diversity of IIT’s community.

I guess from the two events that I mentioned above you can see our vision and goals that the board members along with the other Syrian students will work on and achieve, not just this year but for as long as we can!

Marcelle