The Muslim Student Association (MSA) at NC State aims to build unity within the campus and broader Raleigh community through diversity and education. As one of the largest organizations on campus, the MSA has held several social, educational and outreach events for many years and welcomes people of all backgrounds.

Sinthia Shabnam, the vice president of the MSA and a third-year studying political science, describes the MSA.

“The Muslim Student Association is a common club that’s in most universities and high schools, and I think a big part of it is because a big portion of our student populations across the U.S. are Muslim now,” Shabnam said. “Having a place where we can come together and do things together is really important.”

The MSA at NC State tries to reach out to high school MSA’s and wants to serve as mentor figures for students, according to Shabnam. The MSA mentored youth groups in the past from the Raleigh mosque and spent the day with them around campus.

Shabnam said there are 10 positions on the board that are each dedicated to certain kinds of events or organizational matters. The service chair puts together service events helping those inside and outside of the Muslim community.

“Some things we are doing now are helping with the senior homes,” Shabnam said. “In the past we’ve done tiger rescues, we’ve done habitat for humanity and we also do social events.”

The MSA also got to speak at Respect the Pack and was part of Wolfpack Welcome Week, Packapalooza, Campus Connections and the International Students Orientation.

Students can also participate in social events like brother social and sister social, which provide fun bonding activities with men and women. One of the biggest events is MSA Night, an educational and entertaining event that brings together people of different perspectives and faiths to learn about Islam and laugh together. In addition to social activities, an educational chair organizes the general body meetings that often host a speaker to talk about a given topic.

There is also Da’wah.

“Da’wah means outreach,” Shabnam said. “We do stuff like coffee on the bricks or chai chats to get people talking and feeling more comfortable talking to Muslims about what they want to ask us because we would rather people talk to us and engage in those meaningful conversations. You want to bridge the gaps between people as much as you can when you’re in a place so diverse like college.”

College often has opportunities to connect with many people outside of one’s background. We may stay within our familiar social groups later in life, so this is a good time to reach out to others.

“Later in life you’re going to end up being in kind of the same class group, the same social group and the same ethnicity more often than not and college is the best place to reach out to people who are very different from you and educate how we can,” Shabnam said. “We want to learn from others too.”

In the future, the MSA also hopes to increase the number of people sharing in the events and meetings. Shabnam said MSA meetings often have around 50 to 60 people who come regularly, and the special events like MSA Night can have anywhere from 50 to 250 people attending.

“We want to have a more consistent amount of people coming to our events — more than our 50 — but we want to get closer to that 200 or 300,” Shabnam said. “I want it to be as big as possible with as many people as possible.”

Moneeb Sayed, the president of the MSA and a fourth-year studying science, technology and society, talks about his goal of diversity within the club.

“Just recently, we started having a lot of American students,” Sayed said. “They’re not Muslims but they’re curious. They just want to be a part of it. Now every event, every biweekly meeting we have, they’re there. I really want to see basically by the end of it not just a room full of only Muslims but like a room where everybody is in there regardless of their religion and all that stuff.”

Meetings and events are open to everyone, according to Sayed. People can come to learn about the MSA, the religion itself or about NC State in general. Prospective students have also contacted the MSA with questions about NC State and their majors, and the network of people within the club has helped them out.

“We want MSA to set up that sense of community, like family sense in a way where whenever somebody needs somebody to talk to, somebody to hang out with, anything like that, we’re a resource that’s out there that’s trying to get a little more known,” Sayed said. “One of the reasons I’m striving for that inclusiveness when a complete stranger can walk into a meeting and feel welcome, that really says something about the core values of the organization and what it represents.”