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Denied high school ceremony, Dearborn student gets scholarship to LTU

July 5, 2023

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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Use Your Cell Phone as a Document Camera in Zoom

  • What you will need to have and do
  • Download the mobile Zoom app (either App Store or Google Play)
  • Have your phone plugged in
  • Set up video stand phone holder

From Computer

Log in and start your Zoom session with participants

From Phone

  • Start the Zoom session on your phone app (suggest setting your phone to “Do not disturb” since your phone screen will be seen in Zoom)
  • Type in the Meeting ID and Join
  • Do not use phone audio option to avoid feedback
  • Select “share content” and “screen” to share your cell phone’s screen in your Zoom session
  • Select “start broadcast” from Zoom app. The home screen of your cell phone is now being shared with your participants.

To use your cell phone as a makeshift document camera

  • Open (swipe to switch apps) and select the camera app on your phone
  • Start in photo mode and aim the camera at whatever materials you would like to share
  • This is where you will have to position what you want to share to get the best view – but you will see ‘how you are doing’ in the main Zoom session.