News & Events
WMST Students visit Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson
A group of 200 Washington Math Science Technology Public Charter High School students and staff attended a special meeting with Dr. Ben Carson, the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore on March 1.
Dr. Carson, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008, told the WMST students about his struggles in school, including his time at the bottom of his class in fifth grade, a time when he showed a bad temper. His mother, Sonya Carson, raised Ben and his brother as a single parent in Detroit after getting married at the age of 13 and could not help him very much with his homework because she had left school after the third grade. She demanded that he apply himself in school, and Ben’s grades improved dramatically in middle school, he told his audience of more than 500, which included ninth and eleventh grade WMST students and high school students from Montgomery County and Baltimore County.
During the ninth grade, however, Ben’s grades plummeted as he sought to be popular with his classmates. His mother again enforced a strict program on him that limited his television watching and play time, while demanding that he read two library books a week and write reports on them. His strong improvement in school enabled him to graduate with honors from high school and gain entrance to Yale University.
Dr. Carson addressed the students as a part of his “Think Big” philosophy, which encourages high school students to dedicate themselves to outstanding academic achievement and a dedication to helping ohters. just as he did as a boy when he mother demanded that he read two library books each week and write reports on them.