The Center, along with Freedom’s Journal Institute, was delighted to co-sponsor U.S. presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson as the featured speaker at Olivet Nazarene University’s chapel service on October 1.
Carson told a capacity crowd at Olivet’s Centennial Chapel that the United States was “a place of dreams” for him as he overcame poverty, pursued higher education, and rose to the top of his profession as a pediatric neurosurgeon. He shared details of his life story, describing his childhood in inner-city tenements in his native Detroit and Boston. His mother, married and divorced early in her life, had a third-grade education and pushed her two sons to excel, Carson explained.
His mother’s insistence on reading helped him develop intellectually, and he began to dream of a career in medicine. He earned a scholarship to Yale and graduated from the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan. At age 33, he became the youngest major division director in the history of Johns Hopkins University, where he directed pediatric neurosurgery for 29 years.
In addition to his presidential candidacy, Carson is recognized for outstanding contributions and numerous historic surgeries in the field of pediatric neurosurgery, including the first successful separation of conjoined twins.
Dr. Carson has published eight books, including his autobiography, Gifted Hands, which was made into an award-winning television movie of the same name in 2009. He authored two New York Times bestsellers – America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great and One Nation: What We All Can Do to Save America’s Future. He and his wife, Candy, are co-founders of the Carson Scholars Fund, a foundation that grants scholarships to young students and promotes reading in the younger grades.
Ben Carson answered questions from a group of Center supporters at a private reception backstage after the chapel service.
