After a few years since the South Asian Student Association was discontinued around 2020, it finally made its return to Eleanor Roosevelt High School in 2023. This was an organization known as the SASA club, which was a place where South Asians and people of other ethnic backgrounds could come together and share South Asian cultures. The countries that are mainly focused on are India, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. This club is widely known throughout the country and is also present in colleges like the University of Maryland, College Park, and Towson University. With the hard work and dedication of Isaac Samuel, the club’s president, and Laiba Naseem, the co-president, they fought to bring SASA back to their school.

Laiba Naseem described the process of bringing this club back as, “a challenging but rewarding experience.” Alongside her, “the club officers constantly tried convincing our administration to allow SASA to be formed” for a few years now. Since the Asian Student Association (ASA) already existed at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, the main concern was that this club would overshadow it, but Naseem “believed that the diversity of South Asian cultures and traditions deserved to be celebrated in-depth.”

The purpose of the SASA club is to create “a fun and comfortable environment for South Asian students to be represented at ERHS,” as described by Laiba. They hold bi-weekly meetings on Thursdays in Room 132, which “consist of celebrating South Asian holidays, bringing awareness to South Asian current events, and trying a variety of South Asian dishes.” Though this club is focused on South Asian countries, it is a place where people of all backgrounds are welcome to join. Laiba stated that the club officers plan on having “artistic activities, movie entertainment, competitive games, and lots of food!” for the upcoming meetings. They are also planning to be involved in the Multicultural Night at ERHS in order to represent South Asian culture.

“SASA seemed interesting to me because it was only going to be about a specific part of Asia and it was the part that I was from,” said Savita Nair, a member of the club. From attending every meeting, she feels like “the club officers make the environment very friendly and it makes the club enjoyable to be in.” Nair likes how this is a place where she is “able to meet other South Asians” since she can connect with them and have others to share her culture with. 

The revival of the South Asian Student Association is an important step in striving to bring more culturally diverse clubs to Eleanor Roosevelt High School. As the SASA club officers are all seniors that will be graduating this year, they hope that other members of the club will take over their roles. They also hope that the club will continue strong and be a good community for future students.