Bill Matakas (left) and Katie Hartwell (right) of the U of M Club Downriver with honorees David Ameriguian, Daniela Kabeth and Ian Stewart.
The University of Michigan Club of Downriver met for its annual spring dinner meeting May 9 at Arnaldo’s Banquet Center in Riverview. The attendees included alumni of U of M, distinguished speakers, promising high school juniors who have an interest in applying to U of M, and scholarship recipients and their families.
The club briefly took care of business by entertaining nominations for board members. The following current board members were re-elected to three-year terms: Susan Klotz (Allen Park), Bill Richardson (Riverview), Katie Hartwell (Grosse Ile), John Ball (Wyandotte), Dave Deszi (Southgate) and Rayana Safah (Brownstown).
After dinner Scholarship Chairman Katie Hartwell introduced the three recipients of this year’s Leaders and Best $1,500 scholarships. These merit-based awards take into account rank in class, SAT score, rigor of curriculum, leadership in the community, and well roundedness of their activities. Once those scores are compiled the committee looks at the applicants’ essays. For the final step, the top six finalists come in for an interview. Julie Elstrom Matthews, Christine Dowhan Bailey, and Christine Chambers, leaders in the Downriver community, helped with the interviews. Included in the top six finalists were Diana Nunez and Abby McNeill of Grosse Ile High School and Davis Mears of Bellevue High school.
David Ameriguian was the recipient of the Lloyd Carr Scholarship. David wrote in his essay about a trip last summer to his birth country of Armenia to help build a home for a poor Armenian family. David was adopted from Armenia at the tender age of 3 months into a loving home in Michigan. He realizes he was afforded many opportunities by his good fortune. Through hard work he is the co-valedictorian of Grosse Ile High School where is president of the National Honor Society, captain of the Varsity tennis team, and business manager for the Robotics Team.
He plays the saxophone in the marching band and is a section leader. He has volunteered in many church and community activities. At U of M he is going directly into the Ross Business School, where he believes, as Charles Dickens wrote, “the best way to lengthen our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.” He hopes to use his business degree to find pathways to bring hope to underserved areas such as the Armenian village he visited.
The recipient of the John and Sue Ghindia Award was Daniela Kabeth from Woodhaven High School where she graduates No. 2 among 415 students. Daniela has been president of her student council for three years, and is treasurer of the National Honor Society this year. She was No. 1 singles on her varsity tennis team her sophomore year and was on the varsity dance team all four years, serving as captain her senior year.
She has worked on their yearbook, and works retail part time at Justice. She has been as election inspector for state and federal elections.
The Kenneth Hartwell award this year went to Ian Stewart. He will go into the engineering school at U of M. Ian not only took every available AP class at Grosse Ile HS but has dual enrolled at U of M Dearborn to pick up three college level classes. He will be entering U of M well into his sophomore year in terms of credits. He is a National Merit Finalist scoring above the 99th percentile on the SAT test. But Ian is more than an academic. He is senior patrol leader of his Boy Scout troop, class vice president, and lead programmer for the robotics team.
He is an active rower and section leader in the marching band and involved in many community service projects. His truly inspiring essay quotes Joe Porcino, “Live each day as you would climb a mountain.” And so did Ian, as an eighth grader he climbed the largest mountain at Philmont Boy Scout camp in Arizona.
The keynote speaker was Allen Park Mayor William Matakas. Having lived and received his public education in Allen Park, Mayor Matakas chose the University of Michigan for his undergraduate degree. He was thankful U of M offered so many choices for a major when the door shut on what he hoped would be his career in chemistry. Unfortunately his color blindness made that degree impossible. He instead focused on getting into U of M Law School from which he is a graduate.
He is well known for giving back to the community in which he lives, working on numerous commissions before running for mayor in 2011.
The final speaker of the evening was Brendan Scherer, the 2017 scholarship recipient. The evening concluded with a singing of the Michigan fight song, The Victors.