U.S. presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson told students Thursday at Olivet Nazarene University that the U.S. 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.

Carson was the featured speaker at Thursday’s service in the Centennial Chapel on Olivet’s main campus in Bourbonnais. 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.

“I was a poor student — about as bad as you could imagine,” he said, also acknowledging anger issues and low self-esteem. “But I learned that if you’re not always looking for excuses, then you start looking for solutions. And that can change the trajectory of your life.”

He said 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. CNN and TIME named him one of the nation’s 20 foremost physicians and scientists in 2001. U.S. News & World Report and Harvard University named him one of “America’s Best Leaders.” A 2014 Gallup poll ranked him among the 10 most-admired men in the world. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Springarn Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the NAACP.

Carson’s visit to Olivet was co-sponsored by the university’s Center for Law and Culture with Freedom’s Journal Institute for the Study of Faith and Public Policy.

--Olivet Nazarene University