DEARBORN — The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Michiganchapter has announced its scholarship award winners and other honorees to be recognized at its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Awards Dinner.

Winners were chosen from among Arab and Chaldean high school students from throughout the region who submitted essays written on “what the message of Dr. King means to them.” Awards ranging from $500 to $3000 will be presented at the dinner, set for Friday, Jan. 25 at 6 p.m. at the Byblos Banquet Hall in Dearborn. Dr. Ben Chavis, President and CEO of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Regional Director Imad Hamad said the group received overwhelming positive response as soon as it was announced that Chavis was to speak at the event. A former executive director of the NAACP, Chavis was a well-known Christian minister and civil rights leader for decades before joining the Nation of Islam as a convert in 1997. Today he co-heads the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, which brings together popular hip hop artists to travel the country and speak at large educational events for young people. “He’s a very interesting and unique individual,” Hamad said. He said the group had hoped to bring Chavis to the Martin Luther King event since meeting him about a year ago at a U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. “He’s one who was around Dr. King himself… His background is very interesting.” Hamad said he hopes the ninth annual dinner sets the stage for a very special tenth annual celebration in 2009, which could be held at the American Arab Center for Civil and Human Rights, an education and  resource facility currently being built by ADC in Dearborn. 

Scholarship award winners: First Place Award: Abbas Alawieh, Fordson High School, Dearborn Second Place Award: Laura Neme, Crestwood High School, Dearborn Heights Third Place Award: Matthew Pauls, Troy High School, Troy ??

Fourth Place Award: Badrea L. Elder, Dearborn High School, Dearborn Fifth Place Award: Lara Khadr, Ann Arbor Huron High School, Ypsilanti

Merit award winners: Fatima Fahs, Andover High School, Bloomfield Hills?

Sana Alsamarae, Fordson High School, Dearborn ??

Mohsin Aljabaly, Universal Academy, Detroit Matthew Sabah Hermez Acho, Andover High School, Bloomfield Hills Zeinab Moubadder, Star International Academy, Dearborn Ayat Hassan, Star International Academy, Dearborn Reem Salman, Dearborn High School, Dearborn Stephanie Carmen Yassine, Edsel Ford High School, Dearborn

Educator of the Year Award:

Nawal Hamadeh, founder and president of Hamadeh Educational Services, Inc. Young Leadership Award: Melinda Bazzy, 17, local activist for awareness about autism??

Young Achievement Award: Tae kwan do champion students from the Koubeissi Tae Kwon Do School in Dearborn. The students received eight medals at a recent international tournament in Las Vegas.

For more information on the MLK contest or the scholarship dinner, please visit www.adcmichigan.org