Abdul El-Sayed was born on October 31, 1984, in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills, Michigan, to Egyptian immigrant parents.[3][4][5] He grew up in the Detroit area with his father, Mohamed, and stepmother, Jacqueline, a native of Gratiot County, Michigan, both of whom are engineers.[6] His father grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and immigrated to the U.S. to pursue a PhD at Wayne State University.[7][8] His mother, Fatten Elkomy, is a nurse practitioner in Missouri.[9]
El-Sayed graduated from Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, where he was a team captain for wrestling, football, and lacrosse, in 2003.[8] He then attended the University of Michigan, where he majored in biology and political science and played on the men's club lacrosse team.[10] He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Highest Distinction in 2007 with a bachelor's degree and delivered that year's commencement speech.[11] His speech was later noted as displaying his skill in public speaking[12] and captured the attention of former US president Bill Clinton, who spoke after El-Sayed at the commencement, saying of El-Sayed, "I don't want to embarrass your senior speaker, but I wish every person in the world who believes that we are fated to have a clash of civilizations, and cannot reach across the religious divides, could have heard you speak today."[13] According to El-Sayed, Clinton approached him after the ceremony and encouraged him to consider public service.[13]
El-Sayed received a full-tuition scholarship to the University of Michigan Medical School, where he completed two years of medical school[14] and considered becoming a neurosurgeon.[15] There he led a student medical mission to Peru and founded a student organization that raised money and coordinated community service for a local free clinic.[10]
He then applied for a Rhodes Scholarship, writing in his application:[15]
My religion teaches that if one saves a life, she has saved all of humanity. I remember reading this verse with my father as a boy: "How great," I thought, "would it be then to save a life every day?" Quick to share my thoughts with Baba, I told him that I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up. My father, a professor, thought for a moment, and reasoned, "Abdulrahman, wouldn't it be better to learn why people die, and then teach everyone around you to save lives? Wouldn't that save more lives?" His reasoning stuck; but so did mine.
As a second-year medical student, he received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oriel College, Oxford, where he completed a D.Phil. in public health in 2011.[16][17] At Oxford, he earned a full blue as captain of the men's lacrosse team.[18] In 2014, he completed a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, funded by a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and the Medical Scientist Training Program.[19][20] El-Sayed did not pursue a medical license, and instead went into public health epidemiology work.[21]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_El-Sayed