Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament

Our Mission:

Our mission is to bring high school students together from around the nation to develop leadership, promote communication, and inspire creativity while gaining a deeper understanding of Islam and Muslims. We do this through our annual regional and national tournaments.

We believe that active high school students become active college students. Active college students become active adults within their community. We are dedicated to empowering high school students to be motivated and active within their community. By giving high school students a venue to excel in the arts, sciences, and humanities, they grow up knowing not only that they can be important members of their various communities, but important contributors.

Background Information:

MIST was founded in 2001 in Houston, Texas by a freshman at the University of Houston who saw a need for a program that can guide high school students in all aspects of their academic and personal life. She saw that high school students needed a place where they can belong and feel like they are contributing to their future careers as well as their community. She decided to start a tournament that combined many aspects of the academic arena including art, writing, and community service. This tournament would promote healthy competition while driving students to excel in whatever talent(s) they had.

In May 2001, she presented the idea to several dedicated members of the Houston community from various backgrounds, as well as officers of the MSA at the University of Houston. With their help and encouragement, the first tournament took place in 2002 with about 150 students from Houston, Austin, and Dallas. Due to its success, the MIST board decided to venture out of Texas to see if the idea would be successful elsewhere. The Maryland, Virgina, and Washington DC region was agreed to be a natural second location for a regional MIST because of the heavy concentration of Muslims. Their first MIST Regional was held in 2003. MIST then expanded to Atlanta and Boston in 2004, New York in 2005-2006, and now Michigan and Toronto this year.  MIST currently has over 1500 high school participants and 100 participating high schools nationwide.

Description of Activities:

The tournament lasts two-three days, ending with the Awards Ceremony on the final night. We currently feature 27 different competitions.

In addition to our competitions, the tournament features an educational program full of workshops and activities. Both our competitions and our workshops concentrate on the year’s theme, which is selected for its timeliness and importance to the masses. Last year, our theme was titled “Character: Our Diamond in the Rough.” Our annual theme and workshops provide students with the necessary tools to excel in their personal careers, to help their after-school educational clubs thrive, and to contribute to their communities.

Target Audience:

To be a part of MIST, student must be:

A high school student (private, public, home school)

Of any faith: Since our topics and workshops are geared towards developing critical thinking skills while promoting a greater understanding of Islam and Muslims, MIST is a great educational opportunity for anyone who is interested in broadening their socio-environmental knowledge. Hence, we encourage people of all different faiths and backgrounds to be a part of their high school MIST team. With so much going on in the world today, understanding the faith of over a billion inhabitants of our planet never been more important. Through MIST, we hope to train the future leaders of this world with the right tools to garner a global environment of respect, understanding, and peace.

No previous Islamic knowledge required. MIST is not only for the brainiacs, but for the average joe’s who have little or no information about Islam or Muslims but are willing to learn. All students need to have is a desire to increase their knowledge, develop their talents, exercise their creativity, and have fun! Through our invigorating competitions and engaging workshops, we hope to make learning about Islam and Muslims both easy and fun for everyone!

Furthermore, MIST is for high school students who:

• Want to use their talents to promote peace and understanding in the world
• Want to reach out to more Muslims in their high school
• Are tired of all the cliques amongst the Muslims in their high school and wish there was a way to unite everyone
• Want to start an Islamic educational club (or MSA) in their school but can’t figure out how to attract members
• Want to open doors for their Islamic educational club by giving students the opportunity letter- a privilege many schools give to clubs that take part in regional and national tournaments (students often pick the clubs that give them such opportunities over clubs that don’t)
• Want to keep their Islamic educational club active year to year
• Know how much people learn when taking part in high school tournaments due to self-motivated research and studying, and wish people would focus that much on learning about the true peaceful spirit of Islam!
• Know how exciting it is to take part in regional and national high school tournaments…and how cool it is to run into Muslims from different schools at those events
• Are willing to discover how exciting it is to reflect on Islam and apply what they have reflected to something they already love to do (like writing, art, photography, singing, film-making, etc)…with so many other teenagers from all over the nation doing the same thing, all in their own unique ways!
• Want to bridge the gap between college and high school students
• Want an opportunity to share and hear ideas from their peers and elders on how to deal with day to day problems they are faced with in high school.
• Want all the students in their school who never come to Islamic events to realize how much they can learn about Islam by simply using their talents that make them unique!…and more!