Stuyvesant Muslim Students Association Competes at MIST Nationals

After winning MIST regionals, the Stuyvesant Muslim Students Association (MSA) competed at MIST nationals in July. Entering the tournament, Stuyvesant’s MSA was a four-time reigning regional champion, as well as last year’s national champion.

The Muslim Interscholastic Tournament (MIST) is held across the nation to bring together young Muslim students. To qualify for nationals—a three-day-long competition held at Webster University, Missouri this year—teams must first win the regional competition in the spring. The MSA had placed first overall at MISTNY, New York’s regional competition. However, the top five students in each category during regionals became part of the MISTNY team. This meant that the MISTNY team consisted of students from Stuyvesant and also other schools in New York.

The MISTNY team competed at nationals to represent New York, rather than the entire MSA team. However, if an MSA student placed in the top five of a category at nationals, the credit would be given to Stuyvesant rather than the entire MISTNY team. Nationals tested students in six different categories: Knowledge and Qur’an, Arts, Writing and Oratory, Brackets, Group Projects, and Sports, with some having their own subcategories as well.

Knowledge and Qur’an tested students through four different tests and three Qur’an memorization levels separated by gender, with Stuyvesant winning second place on the third test. The Arts category included Digital Art, 2D Art, 3D Art, Fashion Design, and Photography. Writing and Oratory included an Extemporaneous Essay, Extemporaneous Speaking, Original Oratory, Poetry, Short Fiction, Spoken Word, and a Prepared Essay, where two Stuyvesant students placed third and fifth.

The Brackets category included two Improv sections separated by gender, Math Olympics, Debate, and a MIST Quiz Bowl. Stuy placed third in males’ Improv and Math Olympics and first in MIST Quiz Bowl. The Group Projects category included Humanitarian Service, Science Fair, Short Film, Social Media, Business Venture, and Nasheed/Rap, in which the MSA placed third for the female section. Sports included only basketball separated by gender, where Stuyvesant placed first in the female section and fourth in the male section.

For categories that required a submission or performance, students submitted their work and then advanced to interviews, where they elaborated on their inspiration and creative process. Some categories such as Art required individual submissions, but all submissions were submitted together at the same time. “After each category, you have to explain yourself to the judge and your thought process,” junior and Social Media Manager Raisha Tayba said. “For Nasheed, after your performance, you get to explain your thought processes making the music, your literary choices, and what you wanted to convey… For Art, it’s like an artist’s statement. You get to present your art, but also talk about it and your thinking process.”

To prepare for MIST, the team worked for weeks to stay ahead of the competition. “Our quiz bowl team started preparing weeks in advance, while our writing competitors submitted their work two weeks before the competition,” senior and President Nushrat Jahan said.

Although the entire MSA team did not participate, they had helped contribute to the success. “Overall, our entire MISTNY team has been prepping in advance, and our STUYMSA team has put in a tremendous amount of work in order to achieve our awards,” said Jahan. 

At the competition, several categories, such as Prepared Essay, depended on individual efforts, while others were more teamwork-dependent, such as the Nasheed/Rap category. This meant that the focus on both individual and group efforts was pivotal in ensuring the team’s success. Even if a category was teamwork-dependent, each member still had to develop their individual skills in order to create a collectively strong group effort. “I think one of our biggest strengths was our teamwork,” senior and Sisters’ Vice President Sakina Raza said. “Everyone brought their different strengths to the table, and we were able to trust each other and work together, even when things got stressful… We [made sure] everybody practiced consistently and that everyone fulfilled their individual responsibilities.”

For example, some members took on more of a leadership role, while others made sure to get their own tasks done. Each member was driven and focused on what needed to be done in order for the team to succeed. “For example, after our previous president graduated, it became Nushrat’s and Sakina’s turns to help the sisters out,” said Tayba. “I definitely noticed for nationals they were more like leaders, but it also wasn’t just the board members [who helped]. You could tell someone a deadline was July 10, and you wouldn’t have to force them… Everyone had their own sense of responsibility. No one wanted to let their team down.”

This especially helped ease the intense environment that MIST brought and made teammates feel more comfortable with each other. Students from the MSA had also worked together with the MISTNY team’s students, building unity and becoming closer with each other. “There were many competitors from New York, yet we were all competing alongside one another, instead of against each other,” Jahan said.

Because of this unity, the team were able to enjoy the competition more and strengthen the sense of community that MIST is meant to bring even more. “I feel that all the competitors bonded together well and there was a great sense of connectivity,” Jahan said. “The atmosphere felt very lively and there was a lot of team spirit during the tournament. I feel like the coordination was great too!”

However, the team also felt that they could have been more timely in preparation in order to reduce stress. For example, some categories had submitted later than others and were more rushed, which created some stress. “There were certain times where we could have prepared earlier, which would have ensured we produce our best work and have time to refine our work before going into the competition,” Raza said.

Additionally, during regionals, since the team had been competing with other teams in the state, they had mainly depended on their own skills, knowledge, and criticism and limited interactions with other teams. However, during nationals, since the MISTNY team consisted of students from other schools, MSA students had sought ideas from other schools. “One difference from regionals is that we were able to use the organizers as coaches to help by giving us feedback and ensuring timeliness and quality work,” Raza said. “We also had a practice meeting with the entire MIST New York team, so that we could work off of the other schools’ ideas to improve our submissions.”

The team had also received feedback from and became close with other teams from other regions. For example, since students were able to form coalitions by joining together with other teams to create one joint team, many had formed close bonds with other students within these coalitions. Students within these coalitions had worked together to maximize their skills in their categories, such as Basketball and MIST Quiz Bowl. “I also loved being able to play basketball at nationals because I was able to compete at a national level with both some girls from Brooklyn Tech who I had a coalition with at regionals, and a new group of girls from Dallas,” Raza said. “I am so grateful for not only getting first place at nationals [in basketball], but [also] being able to create these strong meaningful connections with new people through this experience.”

Since nationals takes place during the summer, seniors typically cannot participate, since they have graduated. This meant that this was the last Nationals competition the rising seniors could have attended and next year’s Nationals will be the last one the rising juniors could attend.“From what I heard, it was really nice for them,” Tayba said. “It’s really fulfilling for anyone who goes, and they said it was a big community because you’re competing with the people who you were competing against each other during regionals. You get to talk to a lot of different people, and [it makes me] really excited for next year.”