Mar 13th, 2017, 11:23 AM

S.A.I.D

By Verónica Ayala
Image Credit: Verónica Ayala
A new club on campus promotes cross-cultural communication and tackling social issues that face our young community.

A group of students decided to create a club where people can join together and talk about relevant topics for society and the world. The name is S.A.I.D and it stands for: Students for Activism, Involvement, and Discussion.

This club was created by a group of students who were roommates from different parts of the world enjoyed exchanging knowledge and learning from each other's culture. For them, as AUP promotes the unity of 108 nationalities, it is important to create a space where students can share their own views and learn from each other. The goal of the club is to integrate AUP students and get involved in social issues that affect the young community.


First S.A.I.D meeting. Image Credit: Verónica Ayala

S.A.I.D takes as a mission: to have an international and interconnected community where communication between cultures is important. Topics will be discussed from a variety of experiences and perspectives. Through this initiative, we hope to increase integration and to take power away from ignorance. Students and professors will get the chance to voice their opinion or just listen the opinion of others. We have the chance to take this political and intellectual discussion out of the classroom and bring them into the social sphere. No one is required to turn in a homework assignment or have prior knowledge. We hope to create an open, free, no judgment where we can learn, grow, and enlighten each other.

The students are Margarita Valldejuly (Puerto Rico), Leila Eliot (USA), María José Lozano (Colombia) and Natalie Seelenfreund (USA). They felt that it was important to create a space, bigger than their apartment living room, to talk and share views and experiences. Leila believes that it is important to get out of her own "bubble" and see what the world has to offer. María José wishes to integrate the young community and fight against ethnocentrism. Natalie added, "I have learned so much already from my roommates that I can't imagine how much I will learn from a bigger group of people from different places."  


First S.A.I.D meeting Image Credit: Verónica Ayala

Their first club meeting was Thursday, the 16th of March. The topic that the students wanted to start their discussion with was culture. They sat in a circle and asked questions. ¿To you, what is culture? ¿What do you wish people would stop asking or would as about your culture? ¿With what nationality or nationalities do you identify yourself with? The meeting lasted more than an hour and the students talked about their own cultures, traditions, stories and countries. Students from the US, Mali, Latin America, with Vietnamese, Korean or African backgrounds gave their answer to each question. Yves Sidibe (Mali) defined culture as a mosaic constructed with hundred different elements. Asia Chanel Letlow (USA) added that she wished people would stop asking about her hair and that she does not feel identified with the term "African American." "I am black."

 
First S.A.I.D meeting Image Credit: Verónica Ayala

Moving forward the students would like to discuss all kinds of topics and reach a wider range of students. They would like to talk about gender, politics, society, poverty and much more. The students envision a club where integrity is key. They want to occasionally have speakers or even students themselves give lectures about a certain topic where probably someone is an expert. At the end of the day, their goal is to benefit from each other and as Natalie puts it, "feed off of each other's knowledge."