Meet Omar El-Sharawy! If you recognize his name, it’s probably because you’ve seen it on the SSMU Listerv alongside a witty dad joke. Born in California and raised in the Middle East, there’s never a dull moment for this third-year Economics major! Her Campus McGill was able to catch up with this über-busy 21-year-old while he listened to reggae in his coworker’s office in the SSMU building (they had swapped offices for April Fool’s, and never swapped back). Last year, Omar founded and was president of his fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi, and this year he’s the VP Internal of SSMU.
Emily Campbell for Her Campus McGill (HC McGill): Thanks so much for meeting with Her Campus! Can you tell us a little bit about what you’re involved in on campus?
Omar El-Sharawy (OE): In my first year I was McGill’s Inter-Resident Council VP External, which allowed me to sit on SSMU as IRC rep. Second year, I was Science Undergraduate Society’s SSMU rep, because I was studying pharmacology at the time. I was also the founding father of my fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi. I’ve also been either a leader or a Frosh co-ord every year here at McGill. And then this year, I’m SSMU VP Internal, and I’m a part of Tonal Ecstasy A Capella!
HC McGill: What do you do as VP Internal?
OE: As VP Internal, I’m head of communications and publications. I oversee all of Frosh and the bigger events that SSMU has, like the upcoming Red & White. Even though I was elected in January, I’ve really tried to add diversity and make changes. I’ve changed the layout for Frosh so that SSMU facilitates the work of the faculties in their Frosh planning and co-ordination. In terms of events, this year’s Grad Frosh is going to be three days in June instead of just one. Also, we recently had the Faculty Olympics. We had a record-breaking number of participants. The main pillars of the Faculty Olympics are academics, athletics, and alcohol, and I kind of use that model for everything I do. In terms of athletics, SSMU just paired up with the Montreal Impact for discounted tickets for a recent game. I had also been working to get the US Ambassador to Canada to come talk to SSMU, and he came last week. I also didn’t want to drop the ball on the typical things VP Internals are in charge of, so I re-vamped the listserv, allowing clubs and services to get more outreach. We now feature a student group of the week, and have increased readership by adding a “back to content” button, which means less scrolling.
HC McGill: What’s your favourite thing that you’ve done so far?
OE: Hmmm, it would have to be founding Alpha Sigma Phi on campus or acting as SSMU VP Internal, both for very different reasons. When I started the fraternity, I knew about Greek life and what frats had to offer. We really wanted to provide something different and and new, and it was really cool to get to tailor the fraternity into something unique.
HC McGill: Tell me more about having founded the fraternity, how did that happen? That’s awesome.
OE: Well I didn’t have the best first year, so for good karma and to be a good samaritan, I would answer new students’ questions and concerns on the McGill Incoming Class of 2015 Facebook group. I had also been chosen to be a frosh leader, so I was answering a lot of questions about equity and just providing guidance in general. A representative from Alpha Sigma Phi headquarters in Indianapolis messaged me, asking me if I was interested in starting a fraternity at McGill. He ended up coming to Montreal, and we went for lunch and spoke for like 8 hours about Greek life and involvement, and that’s pretty much how things got kicked off!
HC McGill: What was starting Alpha Sigma Phi like, and what makes it different?
OE: I brought on board my good friend from IRC, Ali Taghva, and we just started expanding from there. We went from one member, to two, to five, twelve, twenty-two, forty-three, fifty-five, now we’re nearly at sixty guys in two years. We took everything there is about a normal frat, and just tried to make it more unique and beneficial. Like we’ve teamed up with Healthy McGill to do a workshop about Sexual Assault and consumption. It’s also required that members and execs participate in a minimum of one charity event per month. This year we did the Terry Fox Run in September, we volunteer regularly at the Mission, and we recently sold Krispy Kremes for charity. We also do things on a bigger scale too, like we planned a toga party which a thousand people attended. We had a DJ From Tomorrowland in, and had sponsors like Molson. It was so cool for the guys to be involved in something and do it all on our own. We also won Greek Week in our first year participating!
HC McGill: What do you do in your spare time, like when you’re not in McGill mode?
OE: I love playing soccer and playing video games, like FIFA. I used to be in a band back home, and I can play a couple of instruments. We would do rap covers of rock songs, like “Sweet Dreams” by Marilyn Manson or “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People. We would do covers but add our own twist to them. Our lead singer is actually now a recording artist in Scotland! And I listen to reggae, of course [motions to Spotify reggae playing from his computer].
HC: What kind of career do you see yourself having in the future?
OE: Econ is fun to learn, but I see myself in marketing (I plan to start a marketing minor, this summer, hopefully), politics, or event planning.
Photos provided by interviewee.