Former neurosurgeon and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson gave a lecture at the University of Kentucky’s College of Nursing for a Turning Point USA event.
The lecture, titled “From Surgeon to Statesman with Dr. Ben Carson,” was free for students, faculty and the general public. On Wednesday, Nov. 20, Carson described his life from childhood where he struggled in his education, to his career as a neurosurgeon and his current political career.
“I had the same brain when I was at the bottom of my class as when I was at the top of my class,” Carson said. “What does that tell you about human potential and how important it is to develop it?”
Attendees filled the room to hear Carson talk with some seats reserved for certain guests like Allison Dole, a former patient of Carson.
Dole, a UK alumna, said Carson operated on her at Johns Hopkins Hospital when she was 12 years old. She said she wanted to see if she could talk to him and introduce him to her daughter, who is named Carson after him.
“We’ve been following his career since I was a patient, we have all of his books and I’d just love to hear him speak again,” Dole said.
When Dole was under the care of Carson, she said she had spinal meningitis with multiple brain abscesses.
“The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong … if it weren’t for Dr. Carson, they wouldn’t have known what was wrong with me,” Dole said.
Carson helped perform the first separation of conjoined twins who were joined at the back of the head. He campaigned to be the Republican presidential nominee in the 2016 Election and was appointed secretary of Housing and Urban Development under former President Donald Trump.
“He’s intelligent, he’s not in it for the money,” Dole said. “I would stand behind anything he has to say, I’m not very political myself, but it was interesting to see what I would call a normal person get into politics.”
Carson said he saw a lack of “common sense” in American society, describing transgender people as an “aberration from the normal” and that an outside force is “making sexual perversion normal.”
“A lot of people think that all these things that are going on in our society are just natural occurrences as we evolve. Guess what? They’re not. They’re on purpose,” Carson said. “January the 10th, 1963, Congressman Herlong of Florida read into the Congressional Record the 45 goals of communism in America.”
Carson said the goals included: controlling the American school system, Hollywood and news media in order to “change the culture.”
The American Cornerstone Institute, a conservative think tank founded by Carson in 2021 to promote conservative values and policies across the country, was also brought up during Carson’s lecture..
Carson said attendees should look into Executive Branch for America, an online educational series designed to teach college students, congressional staffers and professionals to serve in government positions.
“There are four million federal employees … because all the agencies are located in (Washington) D.C., they tend to have DC-type political leanings,” Carson said. “We need to have people go in as staffers who will be permanent, people who will be career employees on both sides so that we even things out.”
Emma McDaniel, a sophomore majoring in nursing and president of the UK chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), said they had been discussing and planning this event since the summer.
TPUSA is a non-profit organization that advocates for conservative policies on college campuses.
McDaniel said she related to Carson’s recounting of medical school and his dislike of attending lectures when he was a student.
“It was super inspirational,” she said.
Mary Baxter, a second-year medical student, said she learned about the event through the pro-life Wildcat group and went to see Carson represent what she believed in.
“He gave a great summary of the things that I believe in … it was nice to hear his story about him growing up and becoming a neurosurgeon,” Baxter said.
Baxter said she looked up to Carson especially due to his medical career. She said she related to his struggles in his first year of medical school and hoped she would be able to succeed like him.
“It was good to hear some motivation,” Baxter said. “He emphasized a lot of exciting and empowering points.”
Carson spoke at another event hosted by TPUSA earlier in 2024 that McDaniel attended. McDaniel said she connected to his speech and was able to talk to him in person about her own goals in the medical field.
McDaniel said Carson’s speech communicated the idea that people can overcome any hardship with hard work. She said she hoped the talk would give attendees faith in the country regardless of political affiliation.
“I know that sometimes it can be disappointing whether you’re left or right,” McDaniel said. “It’s just nice to have common sense spoken at you when usually it’s not … especially from a university standpoint, in my opinion.”
