The path to becoming a cheerleader wasn’t an easy one for Youssef Hasweh.
When he joined the team as a junior, he was the first male cheerleader in Fort Hamilton High School history.
“I haven’t had like the best experience in terms of people welcoming me,” Youssef said. “When I started posting like I was on the team, I got a few hurtful messages. Some of the people have included people that I needed to cheer for.”
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Youssef said he considered quitting the team but chose to be an example for others instead.
"I kind of love that theme of doing things that are bigger than myself,” he said.
Eventually the support drowned out the critics.
“My teammates and my coaches and just my really close friends just were always uplifting me,” he said. “It was more like, 'Youssef, you’re doing something that you love. And like even if that sends a message or not, you should have the right to do that.’”
Soon, Youssef became an inspiration to others leading another male cheerleader to join the squad.
“It made everything worth it,” he said I think that my role was beyond being a cheerleader, it was more of being a statement.”
The confidence Youssef gained on the mat, quickly translated into the classroom.
He’s a straight-A student with a near perfect GPA. Youssef takes five advanced placement courses - with language and composition as his favorite.
“My teacher was incredible and she made me feel like I can be that trailblazer, paving the way and taking people along with me for the ride is more important than me going through it alone,” Youssef. “So that class was beyond academics for me, it taught me who I am.”
When he’s not at cheer practice or working on his homework, Youssef is busy with the law team, model UN and the National Honors Society.
Youssef will attend the University of Chicago in the fall. He hopes to one day become a Supreme Court Justice. But even when he trades the mat for the bench, he said cheer will always be part of his life.
“Cheerleading is beyond the pom-poms, the bows, the mats, the flips,” he said. “To me cheer has meant my own self development and it’s meant being able to cheer on other people but first knowing that you need to cheer on yourself."