Students gather in a classroom and slowly make their way around the room to find their seats. When they sit down, they start making light conversation with students sitting next to them as they anticipate the club advisor’s arrival. When the teacher finally arrives dead silence is infiltrated around the room. She puts a pre-made powerpoint on the board and begins to discuss big plans for the future of her club. This is just one of the three clubs that Biology teacher Thunajjina Uddin leads.
“Muslim students Association is where people of the Muslim faith get together and discuss volunteering, charity work and discuss ways to improve our faith. Every faith is welcome,” said Uddin.
Uddin is an advisor for The Muslim Students Association (MSA), Habitat for Humanity, and The All Around the World club (AAW). MSA is a Tompkins club in which students who share Muslim faith gather together to discuss religion. In addition, the club focuses on volunteering, charity and participating in the Friday prayer. Uddin became an advisor for MSA in 2015, marking this as her first club at Tompkins High School. The All Around the World club was started by Uddin in 2016, and is a group of students that come together and appreciate the many diverse cultures that diversify the students in our school. Students are given a passport that they get stamped to keep track of the places they have been. Finally in 2017, she started Habitat for Humanity (HFH). It is not only a school club, but a world renowned organization that focuses on giving back to the community and building houses for those who are less fortunate.
“I invite students to come and join in on any of the club meetings. All of the clubs want to give back to the community and spread love and unity,” said Uddin.
Running three clubs and teaching an academic class is a lot to juggle, but Uddin has no trouble with the work load. She schedules her clubs’ meetings on different days of the week. MSA is every Friday, AAW is the last wednesday of the month, and HFH meets on Monday of every other week. She is also helped with many responsibilities by the officers of each club. She believes that the student members are very helpful in the running and maintaining each of the three organizations.
“Thankfully the clubs all meet different times and parts of the month.The officers and club members are awesome and handle most of the work,” said Uddin.
In addition to her busy life running three clubs and her ambition to give back to the community, Uddin is a dedicated Biology teacher. Uddin grew up in Bronx, NY, and made the move to Houston when she was 16. She loved the Houston lifestyle so she decided to attend college at The University of Houston, where she eventually met her husband. She has been teaching Biology for four and a half years, and loves to discuss the extensive knowledge involved in the subject.
“My favorite thing about teaching is meeting wonderful people, my students mainly, and working with them every day to reach our goals. I love how every day is full of new experiences and learning,” said Uddin.
