A Competitive Edge

For the past few weeks, the students at Makkah International Institute have been working on the Exploravision, National History Day, and Science Fair Projects. Each grade level and every class has participated in the creation and perfection of their work to present in front of judges for evaluation. Every single individual project was based on a subject in those particular classes for example science classes did science related topics and ect. Both the Exploravision contest and the Science Fair, were science based projects while the National History Day was a historical research project. In physics, the students were asked to create a device or prototype of sorts that might aid in the treatment and or diagnosis of breast cancer, for the Exploravision project. The inspiration that grew from creation from this device led to it being submitted into the Science Fair Project as well by Jennah Abdul-Malik, tenth grade student at Makkah Institute, and I. The middle school students participated in the Green Roof Project for the Exploravision while the 4th/5th grade students worked on a soil erosion project 

The students overall did an excellent job at representing the muslim schooling community with their regional placements. The National History Day advancing students  included;  First place winners Salam Castor, Nazaha Bryant, Jennah Abdul-Malik with their documentary titled Uyghur Internment: A Lesson in Censorship, Romaris Baker in the junior division with his exhibition on  the Stamp Act, Ameer Perkins, Nassir Khamis, Sahar Abdul-Mateen and Ibrahim Abdul-Malik  with an exhibition about the Soldiers Propaganda during the Vietnam war, and lastly me, Christie Castor, in second place for the senior category for a paper about the legal repression of the African American people in the constitution. 

The students who are advancing in the science fair project includes;  placing in third place, Jennah Abdul Malik and Christie Castor in the Biomedical Engineering; Middle schoolers Ibrahim Abdul-Malik and Ameer Perkins with their Environmental Engineering project and last but least Nassir Khamis and Khalil Bryant with a project dealing in Environmental Engineering as well. These students will be advancing into the state category of the competition, which essentially means they will be competing with more students over the state of georgia. We will be cheering on our students virtually as they hopefully continue to advance into great things!

My personal experience regarding this competition is that it requires a lot of focus and dedication. The best way to personally achieve great things in terms of competitions is to put the best work that you and your group could possibly give out.  My group personally, in regards to all our projects, we devoted a lot of time into thinking about the perfect solution to our problem. I would often observe as my other younger siblings would talk about their projects in class and I love seeing the dedication they put as children and teenagers, in important work that could possibly benefit the world in the best of ways. My team thought thoroughly about our topics and even actually debated its change but in the end we came to a decision that only benefitted us but gave us an edge. I cannot lie and say that it was not stressful having to watch as judges criticize the work that took almost a month to complete. Criticism is hard to take especially when everyone feels they put their best foot forward, with that being said, the placements that the students have in each contest shows that our effort is not going to waste. I think it is important to show the world that the students at Makkah Institute have the potential to achieve awesome things. 

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Christie Castor

My name is Christie Castor, I am a student at Makkah Institute in the 12th grade. Though this is my first year enrolled in the Makkah International Institute, I am honored to be part of such dedicated group of muslim people who believe in the education and empowerment of young muslims. I am graduating this year in May, Inshallah, I hope I can take what I have learned from the Makkah Institute and into college with me. 
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