Road to success

Raised by a single mother, young Benjamin Carson experienced dire poverty throughout his childhood. With the never-ending support of his mother, who had only a third-grade education herself, he developed a love of reading. His mother firmly believed that education and faith in the Lord were the channels that would change the course of her boys’ lives and end the cycle of poverty for her family. After graduating from Yale University, Dr. Carson earned his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School.

For nearly 30 years, Dr. Carson served as Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. He assumed this position when he was just 33 years old, making him the youngest major division director in the hospital’s history. In 1987, he successfully performed the first separation of craniopagus twins conjoined at the back of the head. He also performed the first fully successful separation of type-2 vertical craniopagus twins in 1997 in South Africa.