DEARBORN – In the city of Dearborn, few scholarship awards are more hotly contested than the Dearborn Rotary Club Harry A. Sisson Scholarship Award.

Michael Makki

With only the elite students from six Dearborn schools (Advanced Technology Academy, Dearborn, Divine Child, Edsel Ford, Fordson and Henry Ford Academy) all competing for the $5,000 award, Michael Makki knew he had his work cut out for him going into the process.
But the Dearborn High senior said he won the committee over with a little something extra besides his laundry list of academic and community service accomplishments.

“I really think they enjoyed my outgoing personality, that’s what set me apart,” Makki said.

Makki’s current grade-point average is 4.28, but the committee was perhaps even more impressed with his list of activities.

At the ceremony for the award in late February, a speaker announced his day-to-day schedule to the crowd in order to show just how jam-packed a typical day is for Makki.

Makki played football for the Pioneers and was named to the All-City Team as an offensive and defensive lineman, was named Academic All-State Honorable Mention for football, was the Class of 2010 vice president, and was also involved with the American Red Cross, Math Club, French Club, Science Olympiad, and National Honors Society among other clubs and organizations.

Makki said that dedicating at times up to 10 hours a day for football was the toughest activity on his plate other than actual schoolwork, but he added that playing football was important in teaching life lessons.

“Football was tough because I would get home at late hours and not have a lot of time for studying, but it also taught me about perseverance and how to be a man.”

Makki suffered a devastating knee injury early in his career, tearing ligaments in his knee and missing the 10th and 11th grade seasons, but he bounced back after surgery and became one of the best players on the team.

Makki plans to attend the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor for business and hopes to some day become an investment banker because of his love for math.

He will also have the privilege of attending the same school as his brother Tarek, who is four years older and was just accepted to medical school in Ann Arbor.

Makki said that the success of his brother Tarek in academics as well as his time at Detroit Country Day High School helped mold him into a successful student.

“College should be a lot of fun, I want to branch out on my own, meet new people, and just have the best possible experience,” Makki said.

“Education is the most important thing in my life right now and I will always work at it.”