Competition Preps Up for 2010

Change sweeps the competition floor as local high school students gather to compete in the tenth annual Muslim Interscholastic Tournament (MIST) at the University of Houston on Mar. 20.

MIST was founded in Houston of May 2001 and has grown to include six states—District of Columbia, Ga., Mass., N.Y., Mich., Calif. and one other country, Canada. Designed for high school Muslim Students Association (MSA)  students, MIST allows participants to compete in a wide array of events: Islamic knowledge, art, writing and oratory, group projects such as, science fair and newsletter, debate, MIST Bowl and basketball.

This year, competitors will explore the theme, lantern of modesty, but the Houston MIST team is all-new and looking to make sure competitions run efficiently for everyone, from volunteers to competitors.

So what makes the list for improvements?

“Food,” MIST Director Safiya Ravat said.

“Last year there were some problems, so this year we’re looking into improving the food.”

Other changes will include the point system, different grouping of competitors for workshops and price changes for participants and observers.

The online point system that was used last year is fixed.

“We can now give negative points to students, and we will be enforcing this policy,” Ravat said.

Competitors will get points taken off if they are not in their designated workshop when not competing.

The workshops are there to both, teach and engage competitors, Ravat said. Workshop speakers may include local khateebs, community leaders and University of Houston alumni.

Other workshop policies include gender-specific lectures and a repeat of workshops for those participants who could not attend the first time because of a competition.

In previous years, workshops were filled by a group of students from different schools, but Ravat is not sure that such will be the case this year.

“We’re considering keeping participants with their schools to cut down on possible problems,” Ravat said, though this is still a proposed idea and not an official policy, yet.

The enforcement of the new policy will allow school coaches to help keep participants under control.

In addition to the list of changes, participants will see higher prices to compete or attend.

“It will be $47 for competitors and $42 for non-competitors,” Assistant MIST Director Ambreen Ismail said, “which includes food.”

And to mend the core of participant concerns, changes will take place regarding who will serve as judges for competitions.

“First and foremost, we want professionals,” Ravat said.

There will be a concentration on graduate students and professionals such as, teachers and lawyers.

“One criticism we’ve received is that the judges are under qualified,” Ravat said. “We hope to fix that.”

To make sure the program runs smoothly, there will be back-up judges to take the place of a no-show judge. Judges will also be informed of judging policies such as, not consulting with fellow judges on scoring, prior to MIST.

“We’re trying to make sure everything runs according to schedule,” Ismail said.

This means that judging will start on time, and it is the participants’ duty to be on time for their competitions. The competitions are designed not to overlap and the goal is to keep the same three judges for all participants to keep scoring fair and to ensure competitors are not delayed for their next competition.

However, missing a competition may be inevitable. If this happens, the competitor needs to inform MIST about the possible scheduling conflict.

“We’ve worked with participants who’ve missed competitions in the past, and we try to be accommodating and work things out with them,” Ismail said.

MIST will be held on March 20-22.

The last day of MIST happens to fall on the first day after Spring Break, a Monday, but even if the traditional schedule of a Friday, Saturday and Sunday was followed, participants would still miss school on Friday.

“The last day of MIST is always for the debate and MIST bowl finals,” Ismail said. “Only those competitors will be required to be present.”

These final competitions will wrap up and then, the award ceremony will take place. “That will be later in the afternoon, maybe early evening, so not as many students will miss out on school,” Ismail said.

Overall, MIST should not look so different this year.

“We’re working on improving the quality of MIST,” Ravat said. “Most changes will be unnoticeable on the surface, but we want to make sure everything runs smoothly for the competitors.”