Shining Star of the Month (Apr 2007)
ADEEL KHAN - Baltimore Majlis

Featured this month is a young khadim from the Baltimore Majlis, Adeel Khan, age 15. Adeel is currently a high school sophomore who is a member of the Howard-Area Home Schoolers in Columbia, Maryland. He is kept active by playing soccer; and other interests include memorization and recitation of the Holy Qur'an, computer programming, playing chess, and mathematics. During his freshman and sophomore years, Adeel took part in numerous competitive mathematics tournaments.

On February 24, 2007, Adeel and his team took First Place overall with the highest "Sweepstakes" score at the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament (HMMT). The HMMT is a national, annual math tournament for high school students, held alternately at Harvard and MIT. HMMT 2007 was held at MIT, with over 600 participants and over 80 teams. In this competition, students participate in teams of eight and compete individually in subjects such as Algebra, Calculus, Combinatory, Geometry, or a General category. All the teams are put in a large lecture hall, and problems are given to the teams in sets of 3. "The scores are posted in real time as soon as the set is graded. It is the most exciting part of the competition," said Adeel. (To see the full results, visit: http://web.mit.edu/hmmt/www /datafiles/results/2007.pdf )

The Harvard-MIT Math Tournament is a very prestigious math tournament, hosted by two of the top universities in the country. It is one of the top competitions for high school students interested in competitive mathematics. According to Adeel, "Normally, I would attend such competitions with my home-school group but since we wouldn't be participating in this tournament as a team and I really wanted to go, I decided to ask some other students in an online math class I was taking (Worldwide Online Olympiad Training, or WOOT) if they might be interested. I was able to find 7 team members for a full team of 8."

We asked Adeel to give us some advice for other atfal and khuddam who have an interest in mathematics.  "In order to do well in mathematics, you have to really understand it. Unfortunately, the American math curriculum is not very well-suited to this purpose. Therefore, it is necessary to study independently, outside of school. I feel that the reason I am so interested in mathematics is because my mother used to teach me arithmetic before I even went to elementary school, and later I was able to study more difficult material on my own. This year, I have started home schooling which has given me the opportunity to take college level math classes at the local university."

In addition to competitive mathematics, Adeel has also achieved many other distinguished honors, such as earning first place in his school's Chess Club and the Johns Hopkins Talent Search Certificate of High Achievement. Adeel has also been an active member of his local majlis serving as Baltimore's Nazim Taleem, being involved with Adopt-a-Highway clean-ups, and mentoring the Atfal in recitation and memorization of the Holy Qur'an. In his previous years as a tifl, Adeel won first place in the Dr. Abdus Salaam Science Fair in 2005 and 2006 and second place in 2004. He also achieved first place in the Sir Zafrullah Khan Essay Competition in 2004.
 

Adeel plans to continue his education by enrolling, as a full-time undergraduate student, at UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County), where he has received the UMBC Heritage Award--a scholarship of $10,000 a year. He plans to pursue a career in mathematics.

Profile complied by Asif Jamil, Baltimore Majlis &

                             Iftikhar Khan, Austin Majlis