By Jake Navarro
SAN JOSE, CALIF—Zakaria Aissous, a freshman, is a role model at Silver Creek High School, embodying the soul of hard work and dedication.

To cover some of Aissous’ agenda, he meets with nine clubs, is studying Arabic and was a candidate for associated student body spirit leader. His decision to run for ASB spirit leader was fueled by his want to serve the school. It seems a lot for one person; but Aissous says, “You learn some important skills such as communication and collaboration”.

The clubs Aissous is a part of include the Muslim Student Association (MSA), Science Olympiad, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Interact, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Speech and Debate, Boxing and Chess.

At the beginning of the year, Aissous said he was in more than 20 clubs, all of which interested him. Eventually, he decided to stay devoted to the clubs he was most passionate about. To incoming freshmen, Aissous has one thing to say: “Do whatever you’re passionate about and not let the number of clubs discourage you from joining them”.

Aissous is driven by passion and his work ethic. The friends are also a big bonus.

All of the hard work doesn’t come without challenges, though. Aissous may have plenty of opportunities during his extracurriculars to maintain a lively social life, but he still has friends outside of those circles that he sometimes struggles to connect with. “It is very difficult to plan things with my friends,” Aissous says.

Another challenge he faces is conflicting schedules between the extracurriculars. For example, the Boxing and Science Olympiad clubs occur on Wednesdays after school, and he has Arabic class at 2:45 p.m. To combat this, he attends Science Olympiad on Wednesdays but leaves a few minutes early to make it to Arabic class on time which is hosted on Zoom. Fortunately, Boxing also happens on Fridays so he can attend them all once a week.

Some highlights of being in all of these extracurriculars for Aissous are the major events. For instance, the Turkey Trot or the tournaments he’s been in. There are lots of opportunities to bond which brings together not only his friends but the community.