NEWS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doha, Qatar – Chants of “Hoya Saxa!” reverberated throughout the campus as students of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFSQ) celebrated the inaugural Hoya Spirit Day recently.

 

 

Open to SFSQ students, faculty, staff and families, the festival spirit was evident throughout the day, which marked the closing out of the semester. It reached a feverish pinnacle as emcees were introduced to the gathering students amidst music and youthful chatter.

 

 

The perfect day to get out of class, and celebrate the school’s spirit featured musical performances, a presentation of SFSQ sports, a fight song video, game show style quizzes, Bollywood dancing, awards, food and more.

Tasked with leading the proceedings, the emcees, Dima  Wahbeh (Class of 2015) and Erik Vos (Class of 2014) started out by taking light swipes at each other, before announcing the order of the day.

 

 

The student band Halal Boys then performed their hit “Bandar” (Monkey) and a rendition of the hugely popular Arabic song “Aicha.”

 

 

The atmosphere became further animated when the men’s and women’s sports teams were invited on stage. The speeches by sports leaders had a rousing effect on the audience, who rallied behind their teams’ achievements. More chants of “Hoya Saxa!” followed.

 

“Events like this- student run, spirited activities- are representative of a cohesive and unified student body. As a freshman, I want to make sure that our overall student culture is reflective of this. Students should be proud to be Hoyas- and today I think we helped solidify that. The thing that truly makes a school unique is not necessarily academic rigor or athletic strength- it is the overarching student culture,” said Nikhil Lakhanpal, SFSQ’15, freshman class representative to the Student Government Assembly (SGA), which organized the event.

 

 

“As a freshman, but more importantly, as a Georgetown Hoya- I want to graduate having demonstrated that I do not only attend a school in Education City, or a university in Qatar; but a presence in the Middle-East. Today is the start to that goal,” added Lakhanpal.

 

 

The program continued with playing of Georgetown’s fight song video, a Sudanese dance performance, a quiz show, a Bollywood dance, presentation of the Hoya Spirit Award, a final talent activity and a raffle for a number of prizes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The SFSQ’s SGA is comprised of 11 members, elected by the student body, which in turn has 200 student members.

 

 

“The Student Government Assembly advocates student interests and organizes community-wide events like Hoya Spirit Day. The SGA has done a tremendous job this semester, and we’re looking forward to a spring semester full of new initiatives and events.”, said Alex Silberman, advisor to SGA.