MENA Association’s Jeopardy Night builds community and celebrates culture

The Middle Eastern North African Association [MENA] hosted a Jeopardy night on Sept. 18 to bring students together while celebrating the cultures and communities represented by the organization. 

The event, held from 3:30 to 5 p.m., featured a Jeopardy game with two teams competing in categories including sports, music, food, MENA, geography, and pop culture. Students also participated in a “draw yourself” activity and “this or that” before the Jeopardy began.

The game included questions about Middle Eastern and North American culture, as well as general topics. One question asked about the musical framework that makes up the core sound of Arabic music, while another asked students to identify ingredients commonly found alongside a chicken shawarma wrap. 

The two teams, Bisons and Fries, competed throughout the game, with the Fries ultimately winning.

The organization’s board introduced themselves at the beginning of the event, including the President Hana Hawrami, Vice President Justin Dabit, Treasurer Clara Ibrahim, Secretary Hareth Al-Abdallah, Event Coordinator Kori Evans and PR and Social Media Representative Arzen Hassan. 

During the event, the organization also highlighted its recent growth. MENA has added 20 new members and plans to introduce new merchandise, host a bake sale and continue to emphasize member feedback.

Membership provides students with opportunities for cultural engagement, graduation cords, access to the executive board, networking with MENA professionals and mentoring from board members. 

For Lipscomb’s Middle Eastern and Northa African students, events like Jeopardy night provide more than an opportunity to play games.

“To all of us, events like these are very meaningful to us because they bring community together,” said Hassan. “It’s really important for us to hold events, to ensure that we’re still feeling a sense of belonging, feeling invited, having fun.”

Dabit said events also provide an opportunity to increase representation of the Middle Eastern community on campus.

“I love getting people involved,” said Dabit. “Especially because I feel like there isn’t really a lot of representation here on campus for the Middle Eastern community.”

The organization has also worked to make its events more personal through cultural spotlights, where members can discuss their home countries and cultures.

“Making people feel heard” has become an important part of the organization’s approach, according to Hawrami. 

“Helping people see what are these countries, who are these people, what are their cultures,” said Hawrami. “It kind of made the club more versionable and also something to relate to a little more.”

The organization’s board members also said their relationships with each other have grown through their involvement with MENA.

“We didn’t know each other prior to being representatives at this board,” said Hassan. “We connected while being on board, which I think goes into our purpose of creating a community.”

The MENA Association has several events planned for the rest of the semester. The upcoming schedule includes a bake sale Sept. 29, an Iraq spotlight Oct. 16, Henna Night Oct. 21 and a fashion show Oct. 23. The African Students Association, or ASA, and MENA collaboration bonfire and pajamas event is also planned, though the date has not yet been determined. 

As current board members prepare for the future, they said they hope to pass the organization on to students who care about representing their culture.

“We want to find people who in the younger generation, are passionate about this kind of stuff. Actually representing their culture and things like that,” said Dabit. 

According to board members like Dabit, creating opportunities for cultural representation and community on campus is at the heart of what MENA does. 

“Basically just finding people who are just as passionate about that kind of stuff as we are.”

Feature image courtesy of @lipscombmena on Instagram