Before Dr. Ben Carson became a world-renown neurosurgeon and author, he was a troublemaker and terrible student.
Growing up in some of the toughest neighborhoods of Detroit and Boston, Carson was more interested in riling his classmates than earning good grades.
“I really didn’t think I’d live to be 25 years of age,” Carson told an auditorium of about 200 students Monday at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in East Baltimore.
“I never really thought I was going to survive much beyond adulthood, because I didn’t see a lot of people doing that.”
Today, Carson is the director of pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and a professor of neurological surgery, oncology, plastic surgery and pediatrics. He has written four books and amassed a wealth of honorary degrees and distinctions.
Carson credits much of his success to his mother, who worked two or three jobs to avoid welfare and forced her son to turn off the television. She believed in him, he told the students.
He recalled beginning to immerse himself in books, imagining himself conducting experiments and peering into a microscope. Within a year and a half, he rose from the bottom of the class to being a top student.
Carson, speaking as the first in the school’s Think Big speaker series, encouraged the students to embrace learning, be self-motivated — and consider a career in the hard sciences.
“It’s so vitally important that each one of you recognize you are our future,” he said.
At Cristo Rey, which opened last year, students work paid internships to help defray the cost of tuition.
The students, who read one of Carson’s books — either “Think Big” or “Gifted Hands” — to prepare for his visit, were moved to a standing ovation as Carson concluded.
“It really made me open my eyes,” said 14-year-old freshman Brandon Edmonds.
Carson’s words made India Lamb, 14, realize she needs to “make my own opportunities,” she said. “Everything he said stuck in my head.”
Rev. John Swope, president of Cristo Rey Jesuit, said he recognized not every student will feel the profound impact of Carson’s talk immediately. But many will carry with them the message of self-reliance, resiliency and motivation.
“Some of them may reflect back in a month from now, two months, a year,” he said. “They may remember this talk today when they hit a crisis point.”
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