2016 Student Scholar
2016 Scholar
Newark College of Engineering
Michael Gadalla, a mechanical engineering technology major, is entering his senior year at NJIT. He attended County Prep High School in Jersey City and studied networking throughout high school. Swimming is his passion: During his time in high school, he swam for Bayonne High School and was on the swim team all four years. Outside of high school, he spent his time working as a lifeguard and swim instructor until college.
Gadalla began his college career at Vaughn College in Queens, New York, an aeronautical college, which he selected because his goal is to become a pilot and the school seemed to have all the resources he needed to achieve his goal. His interest to join AFROTC began in high school, but unfortunately he didn’t try because he believed he was not qualified to join based on the Air Force website’s information. This was another reason why he went to Vaughn College to become a pilot. After one semester, he realized he did not like the college and decided to transfer to NJIT and participate in the AFROTC, which he joined in the spring of 2014. He was in the program initially for one semester before being disenrolled due to his poor academic performance. At this point in his life, he realized that he needed to really begin to work hard and change his ways. It took him a year and a half of continuous school with summer and winter terms to improve his grade-point average and get back into the program. He continues to work hard and was selected to attend Field Training in the summer of 2016.
Gadalla’s passion for the Air Force actually began when he was young. His father used to explain to him how he came to this country to join the Air Force, but was too old to join by the time he made it to America. Seeing his father going after what he wanted made Gadalla begin to see that he should go after what he wanted in life too. This past February, he was notified that he obtained a pilot slot and will begin pilot training upon graduating and commissioning in May 2018. He is the recipient of the Sal Capriglione Memorial Endowed Scholarship, the Society of American Military Engineers Scholarship and the New York City Post Scholarship.