…. WE WON!

Salaamu Alaikum,
InshaAllah this finds everyone in good health.  A group of ten MCS students, one parent and myself just returned from a high-energy weekend of tournaments held at Hofstra University in Long Island, NY.  We were accompanied by over 90 other Muslim competitors from our DMV area and all 105 of the students entered the arena as Team DC.   In fact 143 total schools were represented this past weekend from all over the US and Canada with over 500 competitors.  This was the tournament of champions as all of these 500+ competitors all made the top three placements (1st thru 3rd place) in their regional MIST competitions – remember the one where MCS won 1st place?  We are proud of our own 10+ MCS champions (not all of our regional top winners attended this weekend) and those who brought their knowledge, projects, ideas, thoughts and talents to share among other champs.

Team DC won 2nd place and MCS had a major contribution towards that.  All of our students who competed, scored points – whether in the top 3 placements or not.  And those points add up to determine the overall winners of the weekend.  We can now say MCS can compete in MIST Bowl (in my opinion, one of the most difficult competitions not just because of the vast amount of knowledge a competitor needs to own but also the ability to buzz in the fastest to say the answer) and take it as far as the semi-finals in MIST Nationals!!  This has never been done before at MCS – until yesterday!!  MashaAllah!!  Never before did we score high enough in Math Olympics to go all the way to Nationals and after three intense rounds of math computations and calculations these past 2 days, win 1st place while there!!  Until yesterday, that is.  These victories are what make even champions fly.

Allow me to share with you the MCS contributors to Team DC MIST.  Trophies and medals will become obsolete over time but the knowledge and experience gained, the new friendships made, and the memories of MIST Nationals 2018 in NY established is what will remain.  I know I just spent an awesome 3 days in the company of MCS heroes and wouldn’t want it spent any other way.
Those heroes are:
Ahmad Bromund – MIST Bowl Semi-Finalist and Business Venture Competitor
Ali Reza Salimi – MIST Bowl Semi-Finalist, Quran Level 1 3rd Place Winner, and Business Venture Competitor
Amir Hajiabbasi – Math Olympics 1st Place Winner (!!)
Hosnieh Sultani – Quran Level 1 Competitor
Fatimah Bromund – Quran Level 3 2nd Place Winner
Sana Erfani – Business Venture Competitor
Marzieh Kazemi – MIST Bowl Semi-Finalist
Nadia Baten – MIST Bowl Semi- Finalist, Short Fiction Competitor and Quran Level 1 Competitor
Nadia Roghani – MIST Bowl Competitor, 3D Art Competitor, Knowledge Test 3 3rd Place Winner, and Prepared Essay Competitor
Reihaneh Nasrati – MIST Bowl Semi-Finalist

We congratulate them all!!