MHS senior Alam has sports to ease pressure

Alam

Marianas High School senior Masrur Alam has become great in managing his time. He’s been preparing for two highly competitive U.S. national finals as part of the CNMI MathCourt team and the MHS Aeronautical Dolphins in the Real World Design Challenge.

And the 17-year-old has turned to sports to ease the pressure of these two academic challenges, rooting for Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50 and still cheering for his NBA team the New York Knicks.

“Sports is fun. I follow the NFL and will be cheering for Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. They deserve to win Super Bowl 50, it’s Cam’s time,” said Alam, who is sticking with the Knicks despite the team a bit behind in the Eastern Conference.

It is also a good thing that being a high school senior, he has fewer classes giving him more time to spend in practicing for the MathCourt and help the Aeronautical Dolphins prepare for the RWDC finals.

Alam was the second best in the in the CNMI MathCourt’s individual competition where he finished second to Agape Christian School’s Bei Bei Chen. He then joined Marianas Baptist Academy 12th grader Delaney Kyle Chua in winning the team event (Team International) as their partnership bested Saipan International School’s two squads (SIS II: Jun Young Chung, Jaehoon Jang and Daniel Lim; and SIS I: Myung Jae Cho, Donggu Hyon and Dong Hee Im).

“I’ve been joining MathCourt since the second grade. It’s challenging every year but I always came more prepared so I could have a better performance,” said Alam, who practices on his own by using and solving problems the old fashion way.

“I always look for problems on textbooks and at the same time review the past problems. For me, it is a year-long preparation for every competition.”

He and Chen will lead Team CNMI to the MathCourt National Finals on May 13 at the Brookside Charter School in Kansas City, Missouri. ACS’ Claire Song and Allan Zhao, and SIS’ Cho and Jang are the other members of the team.

But before going to Kansas, Alam and six of his schoolmates will be representing the Pacific States in the RWDC finals in Washington, D.C. from April 21 to 23. He is the five-time Pacific State champion Aeronautical Dolphins’ project mathematician.

Project manager Ann Margaret Norcio, marketing specialist Edna Nisola, simulations engineer Jun Young Kim, mission planner Matthew Cao, aircraft design engineer Robert Malate, and systems planner Daniel Villarmero are the other members of the Aeronautical Dolphins coached by John Raulerson.

These competitions would just be a warm up for Alam, whose GPA is 4.25, as he got is set to enter the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology after his graduation. He is just waiting for an email from MIT. “I can’t wait to go to MIT. I find science and biology interesting that’s why I’m majoring in biomechanical engineering.”