Humber’s culture clubs get together to spread information and celebrate diversity

Humber’s Lakeshore campus was the scene for Culture Day on October 12, an event hosted by the First Year Experience program to give students an opportunity to learn more about the diversity present in our campus.

“We’re here to invite the students at Humber,” says Sabber Reza, president of the Muslim Student Association and third year in the Bachelor of Commerce program at Humber, “We’re always providing resources so people can learn more about the religion.”

After a two-year long hiatus, Reza and friends started working on reinventing the club. In October of last year, the now president of MSA, asked for the help of his friends, even the non-muslim ones.

“I was in the same class as these guys,” says Ethan Ratos, a 23 year old student from the digital communications program, “They talked more and more to my friend about it, and before the summer, he converted.”

A year ago, Reza approached Ratos and asked him for help with designing the MSA logo and banner, and that’s when he first became involved as a volunteer.

The Muslim Student Association (from left to right): Saifkhan Pathan, Ethan Ratos, Sabber Reza, Omar Ismail, and Lubnaa Aamirah, a volunteer alumni.

“I was there all along, but I wasn’t a full-time member,” says Ratos about Reza’s efforts to reinvent the club, “Over the summer I had more time to think, did my own research and I felt that it was something worth pursuing because it lined up with my world views.”

Now, having embraced the religion, the young student is a full-time member of the association. “Like me, if people want to learn more about it, I’m here to help. I’m still learning too, but we can learn together,” says Ratos.

Vice President Omar Ismail, a 23-year-old student in Marketing, tells Skedline how proud he was of his friend’s engagement in the club by always asking questions in the prayer room, reading the Quran, and volunteering for MSA.

Islam is a religion, but it has influenced culture in many different places so students at the MSA are hoping to represent a larger blanket of countries such as Nepal, Egypt, and Sri Lanka.

“In the end, anyone is welcome, any culture, background, if you identify with it, anyone can come,” says Ismail.

Other clubs were also present at Culture Days

The event also had the participation of other clubs such as the Black Student Support and Engagement program, also looking for more members, Hispano Club, being the most recent one, as well as the Ukrainian Students Club.

There, they talked to students about what they could offer and hosted fun activities for the attendees.

The stand for the Humber Student South Asian Association (HSSA) was particularly trendy amongst those at the event as members were giving out free henna tattoos to anyone willing to wait in line.

Quynh Nguye from Vietnam shows off the henna tattoo she got at Culture Days after stopping by when her class was over.

The twenty-year-old transfer student Quynh Nguye from Vietnam just arrived in Canada for the first time ever last month. Cultural Day was her first time attending a Humber event and, “I really like it! Happy,” she says.