Accomplishments

The 2020-2021 academic year was very unique because of the circumstances due to COVID. Alhamdulillah, this year we were able to accomplish many things.

We started the year with a general body meeting in September. In September we also launched our Penpals initiative with Cambridge University to learn about the diverse experiences of Muslim college students.

In October, we had a general body meeting, an event about the election titled Muslims Rock the Vote with guest speaker Sumaiya Ahmed Sheikh, and Charity Week, which we participate in annually. This year, Charity Week focused on orphans and needy children. We had events throughout the week to fundraise. Brother Abdur-Rafay spoke to us about charity in Islam. Imam Hisham Al Qaisi spoke to us about evil eye, black magic, and jealousy. We also had a game event during the lunch hour and an esports night featuring prizes! For our Charity Week giveaway, we had Airpods and a polaroid camera! In the end, we were able to raise over $2300 in just one week alhamdulillah!

In February, we had another general body meeting. We also co-hosted an event for the Uyghur Genocide with Howard University. By advertising this event, we got some backlash from an emeritus professor. Due to this, the President and Provost released a university-wide statement condemning discrimination, specifically in respect to Muslims. Many IIT administrators attended the event to learn more about the Uyghur Genocide. We are thankful that we could spread awareness about this, alhamdulillah. At the end of the month, we also had an Alumni Career Panel featuring alumni from the following disciplines: health science, machine learning, computer science, mechanical engineering, and business.

In April, we had Islamic Awareness week which featured a game day, a speaker event featuring Dr. Sabeel Ahmed who spoke about practicing dawah in a college setting, as well as an iftaar event that was open to all students at IIT with the Office of Campus Life! After Islamic Awareness Week, we had our last event featuring Sheikh Omar Hedroug who spoke about Ramadan and Islam.

This Ramadan was extremely successful alhamdulillah. It was our first Ramadan in our new Masjid in the IIT Tower and we are grateful to have that space available to us. We organized Ramadan meal bags with Illinois Tech Meal Services on all weekdays and paid all expenses for students who are not on the unlimited meal plan. We also organized our own iftaars over the weekend with the help of donations from alumni alhamdulillah.

In addition, we are the first MSA to be in the process of being certified by Muhsen! Muhsen is an organization that aims for both better communities and better daily lives for all adults and children who are living with disabilities.

Along with meetings for the general body, we also had sisters' events and brothers' events! We had Khutbah groups for sisters on Fridays, as well as Halaqas. We also had an Eid gift exchange for sisters!

We are very thankful to have served you all this year, and we can’t wait to be in person next year inshaAllah!

Jazakallah Khair,

MSA Shurah Board 2020-2021