However, Clinton’s praise did not end with the commencement ceremony. In a 2017 interview with Forbes, El-Sayed recalled that the former president approached him behind the scenes after their speeches, while the graduates were changing out of their academic gowns.
Clinton asked him a question that caught him off guard: Why was he going to medical school? El-Sayed recalled being surprised because no one had asked him to explain why he wanted to pursue medicine. Clinton then shared what he had noticed.
“You know you have a real gift for speaking and I hope you will consider a career in public service,” the former president told him. El-Sayed jokingly responded that his name might make such a career difficult, telling Clinton, “Mr. President, I don’t know if you saw my name, but it’s got 11 letters in it – and that’s just my first name – so I don’t know if that’s going to be possible for me.”
At the time, El-Sayed focused on becoming a surgeon, and a political career wasn’t yet part of his immediate plans. But the conversation stayed with him. A decade later, as he prepared to run for Michigan governor in 2018, he acknowledged that Clinton’s words helped motivate him to enter public service.
“Fast forward 10 years later and where we are in our politics, I thought a lot about what President Clinton told me that day, and I think there is a responsibility to public service,” he explained.
