Finding Community Through Clubs at Georgetown Qatar

By Janna Alsulaiti (SFS’27).
Janna Alsulaiti, is a multilingual sophomore at GU-Q majoring in International History. She speaks Arabic, English, and Japanese. For the Desert Hoya Blog, she shares insights on her classes and life in Qatar as a local.

Being in the Georgetown Qatar community opens up many different opportunities and hobbies for students to take up. One of the biggest ones? Student clubs and organizations at GU-Q have made my out-of-class experience meaningful – and allowed me to find a true sense of community & belonging. 

Students Take Ownership of their Clubs

Most Georgetown Clubs are student led and with very little staff involvement which creates a community of tight-knit students who all enjoy the same thing. This includes: sport clubs, hobby-focused clubs, and even interest-focused clubs. Some will honestly surprise you; like the Tea Club. I am in two clubs, a fashion club by the name of Ksh5a and the Crochet Club.

I remember my first club fair, meandering through the atrium and looking for something that piqued my interest.  While many clubs were interesting to me, nothing struck me as something I would use up my free time to attend. Then I stumbled upon the Crochet Club. I had begun crocheting less than a year prior and enjoyed it, but I found no motivation to keep going. It wasn’t immediate, but as I began getting to know the members and seeing more projects, I began enjoying not only the crochet side of the club but also our small community that we built from it. I enjoyed sitting with them, drinking tea, and crocheting. Teaching new members how to start. It broke down barriers between the upperclassmen and underclassmen. Once I had it figured out, it even became a stress reliever, an opportunity to be able to have one hour a week to sit and crochet without worrying about work.

The fact that it was student-led made the club feel more personal and led some faculty members to join, wishing to learn how to crochet. One particularly memorable moment was during Fall Fest ‘24, where the Crochet club was tasked with creating decorations, and as luck would have it I had an influx of white yarn and made around 13 mini ghosts to be hung around the university. Many friends complimented them. Some even wanted to take them home, which was flattering.

I would not have been able to gain all these connections and a sense of community had it not been for the crochet club, so while it might sound cheesy, engaging in club activities has enhanced my university experience more than I would have ever imagined. It was crochet for me, what might it be for you? 
Learn more about our clubs and organizations at GU-Q.

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