Student Excellence

We're so proud of these recent Henry Ford II Honors Program students. Congratulations to all!

Ayad Alkhatib (2005) graduated summa cum laude in Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochemistry from Wayne State University in 2007.  He also received the Merck Co. Award in Biochemistry and has applied to medical school.

Yousef Alqamoussi (2006) recently published his first novel, The Massacre of Heartbreak Morrow, Crown Publications, 2007.

Rania Aoun took First Prize in the health sciences category for her research paper, “Broken Heart Syndrome: An Investigation for Students,” at the LAND Student Conference 2007.  Her research was done as an honors directed study, her lab will be included in a laboratory manual, Symbiosis, by Linda Kay Brandt and Cindy Bida.

Kelly Beagan, Alina Ivoleva, & Jessica Sawyers  presented their research papers, “Genetically Modified Crops: Growth Rates of GM v. Non-GM Soybeans,” and “Investigation of Genetically Modified Consumer Products,” to the 18th Annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering and Mathematics, Argonne National Labs, 2007.  Their work also presented to the LAND Student Conference 2007. The three are currently attending Wayne State University.

Julie Bodnariu (2006) is studying nursing at Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon.

Amy Calmes' research paper “Books Are Not For Playing With, or Are They?: Exploring the Connection Between Play and Literacy,” was accepted by the National Undergraduate Research Conference, to be held in Maryland in Spring 2008.

Cristina Toledo-Cornell (2005) will complete her studies in Biology at Wayne State University in December 2007.  She was recently accepted to Michigan State University Medical School and Cornell Medical School and will begin her studies at Cornell in Fall 2008. 

Alexandra Godfrey (2006) was accepted to the Physician’s Assistant program at Wayne State University, 2008. A paper she wrote for a med school course at Wayne State University - “The Art of Auscultation: Listening to Tragedy’s Arrhythmia” - was distributed by her professor to the entire class.  She was encouraged to submit it for publication as well.

Ardeta Gjikola (2005) completed her B.A. at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2007. She has been accepted to Graduate School at Cornell and the University of Wisconsin, 2008

Zahraa Hamka was admitted to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, majoring in psychology and mathematics, Fall 2008.

Alina Johnson (2004) is completing her Master’s degree in the School of Information at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.   She recently was awarded the Otis Smith scholarship for the second time, as well as a John Deere/SI Scholarship. Alina also completed an internship in Washington, D.C. at the Corporations for National and Community Service and served on the organizing committee for the “Computational Linguistics Olympiad”.

Zeinab Kenaan (2006) is completing her Bachelor’s in Clinical Laboratory Science at Wayne State University in Winter 2008.  She is applying to the Physician’s Assistant Program.

Kelly Knick transferred to the business program at Eastern Michigan University, Winter 2008. Under a unique arrangement with Eastern, HFCC business students can continue to accumulate credits at HFCC while attending EMU. 

Jamal Koussan (2007) will complete his B.A. in business at the University of Michigan, Dearborn in Spring 2008. 

Kelly (Castillo) McLain and Amy Calmes were nominated by HFCC to the All-USA Academic Team, for 2007-08. 

Rasha Natour was selected to be the Publishing Center Manager at Thirkell Elementary (Fall 2007) by the Beyond Basics reading organization, where Rasha was an outstanding reading volunteer the previous year.

Brittany Redden, Rasha Natour and Amy Calmes made individual presentations at the Wayne State University Undergraduate Research Conference 2007.  Each presented on research conducted in HP directed studies under the supervision of Dr. Peter Kearly.

Jillian Richards, Jessica Sawyers, & Jeff Shrewsberry were awarded “Excellence in Psychology” awards from the American Psychological Association, 2007.

Fayez Salame was nominated (along with HFCC nursing student Martha Ramirez) for the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, 2007-2008.

Hoda Salameh was accepted to The Illinois Institute of Art to study fashion design, Fall 2008. She was also accepted as a publishing fashion intern at Hour Detroit Magazine Spring 2007. 

Shaunah Zimmerman was admitted to the College for Creative Studies, and awarded an annual $6,000 scholarship, Fall 2008.

Words From Recent Graduates

    "I truly enjoyed the program and feel that it properly prepared me to continue my studies at Wayne State University. The directed study requirement allowed me the opportunity to research a topic that I was very interested in while earning credit. My honors advisor, Dr. Anthony Perry, was exceptionally helpful in helping me to discover my career pathway. As a successful student, I feel that most of my success can be attributed to the honors program. The tuition scholarship allowed me to focus on school work and extracurricular activities instead of being concerned on how I will pay my tuition. The honors courses were challenging and well prepared, and allowed me to develop in my thoughts. It was a privilege to have participated in such a successful program."

    "What I liked most about the Honor’s Program was the fact that it forced me to work to my absolute fullest potential, and in doing so I realized I possessed certain strengths I never even knew I had. I have become a much more polished individual and have many achievements from the past two years in the program to my name, achievements that I otherwise could not have accomplished. Being an Honors student helped me prove to myself that I truly was a talented and intelligent individual and helped raise my confidence level a lot, especially when speaking in front of others such as when presenting my Directed Study project or in “Great Works”. My critical thinking skills have also been honed and perfected in classes such as 'Great Works' and 'Honors Colloquium' ."

   "I loved the support of the instructors and mentors. I would definitely recommend this program to others; it‘s a great opportunity."

   "I liked the option for directed studies, and the Great Works course. Without directed studies, I would not have been able to pursue Junior and Senior level topics until was actually enrolled in a four-year institution. The Great Works course was an excuse to let students dive into books they had always planned on reading, but never had time for. It was very enlightening. 

    Of course joining the Honors Program completely transformed my experience and opportunities at Henry Ford C.C. I was able to work less because of the honors scholarship, and so I have completed my bachelors in a 1/3 or ¼ of the time it would have otherwise taken me. I felt that I received more recognition for the hard work that I did in the classroom because of the high GPA necessary to enter the program."