Meet the College of Business and the College of Engineering & Computer Science Medallion winners

Each semester, UM-Dearborn honors a very select group of students with a medallion. Chosen by faculty from their respective colleges, graduates are recognized for their outstanding quality of character, vitality, intellect, integrity and academic record.

To acknowledge the number of strong medallion candidates among UM-Dearborn’s top graduates, three medallions recipients are awarded per college — with one of those students receiving the top Chancellor’s Medallion. Students will also be honored at the April 30 Commencement ceremonies.

Meet the College of Engineering & Computer Science and the College of Business recipients. 

The awardees from the College of Arts, Sciences, & Letters and the College of Education, Health, & Human Services — including the Chancellor’s Medallion awardee, who is a CASL grad — were shared on the UM-Dearborn news site on Tuesday.

Samar Alkhulaidi, College of Business

Samar Alkhulaidi is receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration with a double major in Finance  and Information Systems Management. After attending one year at UM-Ann Arbor, Samar decided  to transfer to UM-Dearborn, where she was awarded a four-year, full-ride scholarship. During her  time here, she also received the Terry and Debbie McElroy Scholarship and the College of Business’  Richard M. Haddrill Scholarship. She has been on the Dean’s List since 2019. 

Samar dedicates much of her free time to volunteering. She began volunteering at Sun Valley Foods  in the Quality Control Department and then in the Accounting Department. She also worked with  ACCESS to help plan and execute a celebration to support and welcome Freedom House residents  and their families to the Detroit community. In 2020, Samar volunteered at the Islamic Center of Detroit to prepare and organize a drive-thru providing toys, food and entertainment for kids with special needs to celebrate  the Islamic holiday Eid Al-Adha. Throughout her time in the College of Business, Samar was engaged with the Information  Systems Association and the American Marketing Association.

Samar is a member of the business honor society Beta Gamma Sigma and has completed several internships, including with  Robert Bosch USA as a sales intern and Lynn Medical as a finance intern. In 2022, Samar decided to launch her own company  called InBeigeCo to pursue her love of fashion. Using the knowledge from her business classes, she was able to reach out to  suppliers, design a website, and start advertising on all social media platforms. Currently, InBeige sells jewelry that is hand picked by Samar in addition to a few custom-designed pieces. However, Samar plans on expanding her business to include  sunglasses and clothing with the right group of creative individuals and visionaries by her side.

An entrepreneur at heart, Samar plans on launching many businesses in the future, including a restaurant, bakery shop and a  financial advising firm. After graduation, she wants to pursue an MBA with a concentration in Finance, which she hopes will  help her build the knowledge and personal networks to run her businesses successfully.

Wajiha Fawaz, College of Business
Wajiha Fawaz is receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in Accounting and a  minor in French Studies, and is graduating with high distinction. She is the recipient of the Opportunity  Scholarship, the COB Endowed Scholarship, the Richard Czarnecki Scholarship and the William R. D.  Martin Scholarship. She has been inducted into three different honors societies: Beta Gamma Sigma,  Sigma Alpha Phi and Pi Delta Phi.

Wajiha has been engaged in a broad range of campus opportunities at UM-Dearborn. She earned the  (M)Talent Distinction as the third student to join the program’s 100K club. She has also been a member  of the student organizations Alpha Kappa Psi and Le Club Francophone. She purposefully took courses  in both French and Spanish to deepen her understanding of other cultures. More recently, she has been  volunteering with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. Wajiha has participated in three internships in her time at UM-Dearborn. Her first was as an invoice processing intern in accounts  payable at Quicken Loans. She then worked as an accounts receivable co-op at DENSO, where she gained experience in annual  and internal audits. Her most recent internship, which led to a full-time job offer, was with Ernst & Young as an assurance intern. Her supervisor at E&Y wrote, “What I find most impressive is that Wajiha continued to have an entrepreneurial mindset even  when working in a large firm such as E&Y. She always sought to improve the ways and methods in which we completed our tasks  and projects.” She has already earned the 150 undergraduate credit hours needed to sit for the CPA exam, parts of which she  plans to take over the summer. In the fall, she will start her full-time position at E&Y while working on her graduate degree in  accounting as part of the COB’s 4+1 program.

Morgan Sorgatz, College of Business

Morgan Sorgatz is receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Information Systems Management with a minor in Digital Marketing, and is graduating with high distinction. She has received several scholarships, including the Alumni Legacy Scholarship and the Victor Streeter Endowed Management Information Systems Scholarship.

While at UM-Dearborn, she has participated in many organizations. She is a member of Delta Phi Epsilon and has held several leadership roles, all relating to academic well-being. She is also a member  of Beta Alpha Psi, serving on the executive board. Morgan was part of the UM-Dearborn study  abroad program, taking classes at the University of Padua in summer 2019. She volunteers through  student organizations as well as with community organizations and has worked on fundraisers for ANAD (Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders) and participated in Walk for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Morgan  made cards for children in hospitals, elderly in homes, those serving our country and healthcare workers and made blankets  to donate to shelters and hospitals. She has been a regular volunteer with the MLK Day of Service and a volunteer with both  Forgotten Harvest and the Focus Hope Food Distribution Center.

Morgan has also participated in many internship and professional opportunities, the first of which was during the summer of  2020 at United Wholesale Mortgage, where she was a technology intern on their Salesforce team. Her two recent internships  have been with Comerica Bank. She started as a technology risk and compliance intern in the Cybersecurity Department, and  then returned for an additional internship to include experience with the Customer Engagement Team. Following graduation, Morgan will join Comerica’s technology engineering collective program for a two-year rotation.

Maya Hamka, College of Engineering & Computer Science

Maya Hamka is receiving Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees in Electrical Engineering  and Engineering Mathematics (dual degree), and is graduating with high distinction. Her academic  honors include the Chancellor’s Scholarship (Fall 2018), James B. Angell Scholar (2020, 2021),  University Honors (five times), Dean’s List (six times), 2021 UM-Dearborn Difference Maker, 2022  Honors Scholar in Electrical Engineering, and Women in Math Award for High Achievements  (three times).

During her time at UM-Dearborn, Maya has immersed herself in professional and research activities.  She completed two internships, the first at Toyota Motor North America R&D working with automated driving systems, and the second at DTE Energy working with the modern workplace  group. She assisted Mathematics Associate Professor Yulia Hristova and Assistant Professor Aditya Viswanathan with research for developing an efficient algorithm to solve the phase retrieval problem. Maya has gained  experience in teaching and tutoring, mentoring her peers and K-12 students. She was a teaching assistant for Differential  Equations and Linear Algebra as well as the Maize and Blue Match Circle. She has been a volunteer for CoderGirls Detroit, as well as GirlsGetMath@Dearborn.

Maya has been active in several student organizations. She was the president of the engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi for two semesters. She co-founded a chapter of the Association for Women in Mathematics and served as its first president in Fall  2021. Maya was also active in Alpha Omega Epsilon, a sorority for women in engineering and technical sciences. 

After graduation, Maya will pursue an MSE in Systems Engineering and Design at the University of Michigan. She will also  begin working full-time at General Motors as a software engineer in the Global Product Development TRACK program.

Hassan Ibrahim, College of Engineering & Computer Science

Hassan Ibrahim is receiving a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance and  is graduating with high distinction. He has accomplished numerous achievements during his time  at UM-Dearborn, including 2022 Honors Scholar for the BS-CIA major, University Honors (four  times), Dean’s List (seven times), James B. Angell Scholar (2020, 2021), William J. Branstrom Prize  (2019), Slosberg and Sorscher Memorial Scholarship (Fall 2020, Winter 2021), Dean’s Scholarship  (every year), Kochoff Pathway to Success Opportunity Scholarship (every year), Michigan  Competitive Scholarship (all years), first place at UM-Dearborn’s hackathon (2020), third place  at UM-Dearborn’s Policy Pitch (Fall 2021), and representing UM-Dearborn at the ICPC Global  Competitive Programming Competition.

Hassan conducted research on “Virtual Testing System for Autonomous Vehicles” (Summer 2019 and Summer 2020) and  “Using Deep Learning for Skin Cancer Detection” (Winter 2022) under the supervision of Professor Jie Shen. He won the  “Most Intriguing” Award at the 2019 SURE Research Slam for his research project. Hassan worked as a system testing and  validation intern at Savari, Inc. (Sept. 2017-May 2018) and at CalmCar Vision Systems (May 2018-Aug. 2019). He has  worked as a junior software development engineer at Amazon since June 2020. He also organized a recruiting and career event  between Amazon and UM-Dearborn.

Hassan actively participated in several student clubs and organizations, including Student Government, Muslim Student  Association, Upsilon Pi Epsilon, Society of Women Engineers and PRIDE. In Student Government, he was the CECS  Representative Senator from Winter 2020 to Winter 2021 and the Chair of Rules and Ethics Committee for Winter 2022.  He also founded his own humanitarian relief nonprofit in November 2019 and has served as the president since then. Through  the nonprofit, he ran a blanket drive where more than 120 blankets were donated to homeless shelters in the Metro Detroit  area. In the near future, Hassan plans to obtain an MBA from a top business school. Until then, he plans to work as a software  engineer. He accepted an offer from Amazon to continue working after graduation and hopes to be a senior software engineer by the time he starts his MBA.

Alexus Warchock, College of Engineering & Computer Science

Alexus Warchock is receiving Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees in Bioengineering and Mechanical  Engineering (dual degree), and is graduating with high distinction. She has received several academic  honors and scholarships, including University Honors (seven times), Bioengineering and Mechanical  Engineering Honors Scholar (2021), James B. Angell Scholar (seven times), Freshman Chemistry Award  (2018), The Ali Ayyash Memorial Scholarship (2021), The Emily Sioma Community Service Scholarship  (2018), Miss Jackson Crossroads Title and Scholarship (2018), and the UM-Dearborn Metropolitan  Scholarship (2017).

In fall 2021, Alexus worked with Professor Alan Argento on research investigating ocular biomechanics.  Over the summer of 2021, she worked in the Rehabilitation Biomechanics Laboratory as part of the  UM-SMART summer program, a University of Michigan MSTP preparatory program for undergraduate students interested  in obtaining an MD/PhD. She presented her findings at the U-M MSTP Annual Scientific Retreat. Alexus also completed two  internships. From spring of 2020 to summer of 2021, she worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the National  Ignition Facility. She also completed a production system engineering internship at Brose from spring of 2019 to spring of 2020. 

Alexus is engaged in various extracurricular activities. In 2018, she founded Victors Move, a UM-Dearborn student organization  that helps students connect, share their passion for dance, and expose members to different cultural dance styles. She has been a  toastmasters member through the UM-Dearborn chapter, where she worked alongside students to develop her communication and  public speaking skills. She volunteered in many local youth events, gave presentations on “Being Your Best Self ” to hundreds of  students in multiple schools, and was a mentor through the UM-Dearborn student organization Mentors for a Brighter Day. She  also frequently volunteers at Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn.

Alexus was inspired by the story of a team of engineers and doctors who gave a young girl the ability to dance again after losing her  leg to cancer. This propelled her to study bioengineering and mechanical engineering. Her goal is to be able to work with patients  while developing technologies and therapeutics adapted to meet individual needs. She wants to be part of the solution of bridging  the disconnect between engineering and clinical applications. She plans to use an MD/PhD career path to work in this area.