Scholarship Luncheon Inspires Students and Promotes Higher Education
Inside the Detroit Athletic Club (DAC) on June 13th, 35 college students were honored as they each received a scholarship from the Midwest Independent Retailers Foundation (MIRF) in the amount of $1,500.
MIRF Chairman, Bill Wild, served as the afternoon’s Master of Ceremonies. “This period of time marks a key milestone in your education career, and we couldn’t be prouder to help you along this journey,” said Wild. “You are the future, and your ongoing education will help prepare you to face the challenges of tomorrow.”
MIRA Board Member, Michael Cavin, led the attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance and with his powerful voice sang the National Anthem.
Gary Torgow, Chairman of Huntington National Bank, delivered this year’s keynote speech, starting with a message of congratulations to the student. “You are the future leaders of our community and what you are doing today is remarkable.” He told a story about meeting former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, at a banking conference; he was seated next to her at the head table. He asked her about one of the great things that happened as Prime Minister. She replied that there were many. Then he asked her to share something bad that happened and she proceeded to tell the story about her first State dinner in her honor at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth. Shortly after arriving at the dinner, Thatcher realized that she was wearing the same dress as the Queen. Mortified by her faux pas, she wrote an apology letter to the Queen when she returned to her office. A couple days later the Queen responded through her secretary that no apology was necessary because the Queen never notices what commoners wear. “I was thinking about that story and how it is a terrific lesson to what is happening here,” said Torgow. “There are no commoners in our world. Every single person is precious. Every single person is royalty and no matter what we do or what our job is, no matter where you stand in the world or what your economic platform or education platform is, we must remember that every single person we encounter, in heaven’s eyes, is royalty. What you (speaking to MIRA and MIRF board) are doing today is wonderful, to award scholarships to these students, to lift them up; they will be the royalty of our next generation. What a privilege and what an honor. What tremendous opportunity that you (the students) are taking.”
Today, Torgow is the chairman of the 21st largest bank in the United States with 20,000 employees; they are the largest SBA lender in the US. They have 1,000 offices in 11 states.
During his speech, Torgow shared a few stories including one related to MIRF Scholarship Sponsors, DTE. Torgow is very familiar with scholarship programs. He gives out the SWAG awards through his bank which stands for Students Wired for Achieving Greatness. He met a young man named Alex. “During his interview, he was wearing a bowtie and he looked like he was going to be the President of the United States,” said Torgow. “I asked him to tell me about himself. He was headed to Michigan State University.”
However, Alex wanted to attend Morehouse College, the leading black institution in America because Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from there but his 3.2. grade point average didn’t’ earn him a scholarship to pay for the $250,000 tuition fee. As a new board member of DTE, Torgow was set to fly to Florida for his first board meeting later that afternoon. At the DTE board member dinner that night, he sat next to a longtime DTE board who happened to be the president of Morehouse College, David Thomas. “You know there are no coincidences,” said Torgow.
He proceeded to tell Thomas about Alex, and how he was accepted to Morehouse College but couldn’t’ afford the tuition. “This kid is going to be the president of the United States one day and you will want him at your college,” Torgow told Thomas.
Thomas proposed to Torgow if he gave half the money, Morehouse would give the other half. The two men shook hands and made a deal. Today, Alex is the number one student in his class at Morehouse College. “If you put your head and your heart in the right place, the opportunities are there,” said Torgow. “When you want to do something good, there is always little push to help and, in that story, that push came from DTE and the DTE Foundation. The hard work they do, and these sponsors do to help these young students is paying off … you see on the faces of these students the promise and opportunity and it is such a beautiful thing.”
MIRF Board members Nabby Yono, Paul Elhindi, Cliff Denha, Khalil Rahal and Vanessa Denha Garmo read the biographies of each student as Wild handed them their checks.
Near the end of his 20-minute talk, Torgow talked about his own academic life and how he was a C student and how ended up in law school wanting to follow the footsteps of his grandfather but, “I wasn’t a very good lawyer,” noted Torgow.
At one point a real estate opportunity came his way and Togow ended up in the real estate business and ultimately the banking business. “It doesn’t matter if you are smarter, richer, more handsome, or more beautiful … you keep your eye on the ball and your eye on the ball means your job in life is to do good things for people. If you make it your life’s passion to do good for yourself so you can do good things for other people, you will see tremendous benefit.”
Torgow continued to share more of his own personal experiences. “The smartest people in my law school class never achieved all that we thought they would with all the great grades,” said Torgow. “Ask yourself if you are using the opportunities you are given to better the world? We live in one of the most complicated times in our history … what your job is to keep your eye on your world and to make sure that you do the right things, say the right things, and treat people the right way. If you see someone less fortunate than you, try to lift them up and give them an opportunity. You don’t have to be the best at what you do … but be the kindest, most gentle, and fine person and have a lot of gratitude.”
Torgow went against the old cliché that nice people finish last. “Nice people do finish first,” he said. “When a person shares kindness on this planet, when you do something for someone else and treat people with dignity, it triggers a kindness platform upstairs that sends kindness back down to you here,” said Torgow. “When you do something good for someone else, heaven looks at you and says ‘wow, they are taking care of my children, I need to take care of them.’ When you find ways to benefit others, you will benefit from the goodness you share with others.”