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SOUTHFIELD—A few weeks ago, Hatem Gelan was one frustrated recent high school graduate.
Today, though, he uses words like “fortunate” and “grateful” to describe his current mood.
A full tuition scholarship to Lawrence Technological University will do that to a person.
At the end of his high school studies, Hatem was late for a mandatory graduation rehearsal at Dearborn’s Edsel Ford High School, after a long day of school and then work at Sheeba, a Yemeni restaurant with two Dearborn locations. The school wouldn’t budge, saying mandatory means mandatory, and Gelan wouldn’t be allowed his moment to cross the graduation stage.
Since then, the Yemeni and wider Arab American community has rallied around Gelan, who emigrated to the United States with his family from Yemen a decade ago.
One person who read about Gelan’s plight in the local media was Lawrence Tech President Tarek M. Sobh. Lisa Kujawa, vice president for enrollment management at LTU, recalled that Sobh “walked into my office and showed me the article. He said, ‘Let’s help this young man.’”
So Kujawa contacted Gelan, LTU checked out his background, including his 3.7 grade point average and recommendations from teachers. The result? An offer for a full tuition scholarship.
“I would never have imagined this would happen,” said Gelan, who plans a double major in electrical and computer engineering. After a campus tour and meetings with faculty and staff—including Provost Richard Heist—Gelan described LTU as “great people, very welcoming…the labs were totally amazing.”
The tuition offer removes one of the biggest worries for students. “My thought previously about college was how I would handle the finances,” he said. “Now I can focus on just learning. I’m very grateful for that.”
Touring campus with Gelan was Kassem Ali, a board member of the Yemeni American Association, a nonprofit formed in 1997 to represent Yemeni American interests.
“Hatem reached out to me after what happened at his high school,” Ali said. “I talked to his teachers, and foundout he was a very hard-working young man, working 30-40 hours a week at the restaurant, while maintaining a high grade point average. We staged a ceremony for him to make up for him missing the real one, and we’re trying to change the policy for future students.”
Ali called LTU’s scholarship offer “very impressive… After a bad experience, now he has a full scholarship to one of the finest universities around.”
And Kujawa said of Gelan: “He’s going to get a great job and give back to the community.”
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