Decorations of the celebration of Albanian Inde- pendence Day at Manhattan College. ISAIAHROSARIO/THEQUADRANGLE
By Isaiah Rosario, Sports Editor
On Nov. 28, 1912, Albania gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire. 111 years later, it is being celebrated by Albanian students at Manhattan College.
The Albanian Student Association at MC celebrated the anniversary of their independence with a DJ, dances, food, raffles, and giveaways. This was the second time the event was held on campus, as the Albanian Student Association was created last year.
The president of the Albanian Student Association, Eleni Mazija, shared that she always had the idea to open the club. It made it a lot easier for her knowing that other students on campus wanted to jump on board. In her junior year in 2022, Mazija officially opened the club.
Just like clubs such as the Fuerza Latina, Italian Club and Muslim Student Association, the Albanian Student Association allows for students to further connect with their culture.
“I knew a lot of Albanians were at the school,” junior Isabella Kola said. “I came and was looking for a way to connect more with them. I’m so grateful for this club because that way, I have an excuse to see them. I’m always so busy with my major and it’s nice to have a family to fall back on in a sense”
Despite not being from Albania, the Albanian Student Association has given one student in particular the opportunity to enjoy the culture of her home country. Freshman Donika Krasniqi is from Kosovo, which is a self-declared independent country in the Balkan region of Europe and shares many of the same traditions of Albania.
“This association has helped me a lot because I do love my country and I love like anything to do with it, like the traditions and everything,” Krasniqi said. “I’m from Kosovo and the traditions are the same, the dances are quite the same. The mindset is also pretty similar and since I grew up with the language, Albanian, as I speak at our home. When I heard about this association, I was able to speak it here as well, which makes me feel at home.”
When speaking about the culture surrounding events such as the Independence Day celebration, members shared a sense of the importance of community to recognize and help everyone in any way possible.
“In the Albanian community, we love to say that regardless of your religion, whether you’re Catholic, Muslim, Orthodox, Jewish, whatever it may be, we always look out for each other,” vice president Gabriel Gojcaj said. “At the end of the day, we are all Albanian. We like to stay close and help each other’s families do whatever they have to do.”
One of the dreams of this club is to be able to expand its community more than it already has, outside of MC and to other neighboring colleges and areas.
“One dream of mine would be for us to get multiple Albanian clubs throughout the New York area and even maybe the United States together and communicate with one another and organize in some kind of a greater way so that we can all be together,” club relations and public relations officer Matthew Jankovic said. “Organization is key, so the more that you’re organized as a group of people, the better it is for everyone, and the more you can get done.”
The culture and love for Albania brought many students together on campus to create the student association. The students of the association believe that it is important to show where they came from.
“We are rich in culture, rich in food, rich in language, rich in hospitality and that’s kind of how I would describe us,” Mazija said. “To me, Albanian culture is very important. I feel that we are very unique. We have many things that come across other countries that do have the same type of hospitality, food and language, but I feel that we are unique because our history is one of the oldest histories in the world. I feel that it’s not right to not show it.”