The American Arab Youth (AAY) club is a new club being offered this year at Wiregrass Ranch High School with sponsor Jessica Passero. Junior, Samer Khatib and his sister, Luna Khatib founded the club after realizing the need for it.

“One day I was discussing extracurricular activities with my sister, who is a freshman; she told me that she wanted to get active in the Arab community during her years in high school,” S. Khatib said. “I formulated a thought that we could create a club at school, due to there being a negative stigma in social media that causes Arabs to to be ashamed of their culture.”

This club is for students of any race to be able to learn about Arab cultures and customs. Samer Khatib hopes that AAY will help foster a positive community at Wiregrass Ranch.

“Together with my sister, who is Vice President of the club, we generated many ideas that would allow us to achieve a goal of letting Arabs find social amnesty from the judgement they receive and socialize with other Arabs or people from different places around the world.”

Treasurer, Hana Abdelkawi feels this club is a good opportunity for everyone to come together.

“I think that us Arabs or even students who are just interested in the culture can overall come together,” Abdelkawi said. “Our school especially has a lot of Arab students, more than most think, which is why I think this club is a great new idea; a place for people from this culture and of interest in it can come and learn from each other.”

Samer and Luna Khatib had help from their father to make the club grow even more.

“Since our father is the president of the Arab American Community Center in Tampa, we would be able to plan events for and by Arab youths to which anyone could come,” Samer said.

AAY club meets every other Thursday and can be found in room 3-169.