Dearborn Rotary Awards $15K in Scholarships to Local Students

The Rotary Club of Dearborn this month announced the awarding of $15,000 in scholarships to Dearborn high school students.

The scholarships coincided with rotary's Youth Month, held every February. Youth Month invites two students from each of the local high schools to attend and participate in its meetings and talk with Rotarians.

This year, the number of students receiving scholarships grew with the introduction of the first Robert M. Young and Past President’s Scholarship.

Young, a retired educator and former Dearborn Rotary president, provided the seed money to award scholarships to students in Dearborn Public high schools, based on their academic achievements, community service, leadership and an essay that demonstrated their commitment to the Rotary Four-Way Test.

“Our Club is very grateful to Bob for his tremendous generosity and other donors who contributed,” said John Artis, Dearborn Rotary’s 2011-12 president.  “Their support, along with Rotarians who helped with the scholarship planning and selection process, enabled us to launch the program this year with three awards.”

One student was selected from each of three high schools within Dearborn Public Schools to receive $2,000 each for the college or university of their choice. This year’s honorees were Mayla Harp, ; Hana Chovcair, ; and Kim Le, .

This year’s sixth annual Hugh Archer Memorial Scholarship of $4,000 was presented to Hussein Abdallah, a senior at DHS. Abdallah, son of Mohamed and Salwa Abdallah, plans to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Archer, a longtime Rotarian who served as president of Rotary International in 1988-1989, was known for many achievements including inventor, scientist, entrepreneur, banker, businessman, ham radio operator, sportsman, and humanitarian.

“Interestingly, Hussein’s scholarship application revealed him to be someone very much like Hugh Archer in business, personal interaction and science,” said Lee Hollmann, chairman of the Archer Scholarship committee.

The Club’s largest annual scholarship award of $5,000 was presented to Amanda Amen from Dearborn High School. Amen, daughter of Andrea Awada and Alan Amen, received the Harry A. Sisson Memorial Scholarship, which is made possible through an endowment from the Harry A. Sisson Foundation.  Mr. Sisson became a Rotarian in 1917 and patterned his life after the principles of Rotary’s motto “Service above Self.”

Criteria for winning the Sisson Scholarship include exemplifying the Rotary service ideals along with high academic achievement, leadership among peers and demonstration of the highest ethical standards.

The award was presented to Amen by Jim Ives, Dearborn’s Rotarian of the Year.

In addition to maintaining high academic standards, Amen has served as a tutor, student body vice president, and member of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights Youth Advisory Board and the National Honor Society.

Amen was also selected as one of two high school representatives from Dearborn High to participate in Dearborn Rotary’s Youth Month.

Other students included Jacob Shultz, Dearborn High; Daniel Skidmore and Kara Flack, ; Taylor Kerrigan and Mazen Hammoud, Edsel Ford; Imad Murad and Mariam Jalloul, Fordson; Bianca Gleton and Steve Chamas, Henry Ford Academy, and Daniel Pounds and Taylor Ferguson, .