March 29, 2007

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Amir Abu-Khalil, a second-year medical student, has won the $1,250 Amin and Nancy Habbas Scholarship, established to help high-achieving students of Arab origin enrolled at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

Criteria for the Habbas Scholarship, established in 1991, include leadership potential, community and extracurricular involvement, financial need, and academic achievement.

Abu-Khalil has served as public health director of the Imani Clinic, a free, student-run clinic in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento. In that position, Abu-Khalil has helped promote a number of activities to raise awareness of public health topics, including the Ulezi Family Health Fair and Concert, the Oak Park Summer Concert Series, and the Imani Health Education and Outreach Project. The last involves teaching a group of 14 undergraduate volunteers who assist at the Imani Clinic.

Abu-Khalil is the treasurer of the school's Class of 2009, and a co-chair of the American Medical Students Association's annual silent auction and wine tasting event.