BY EVEY WEISBLAT, SLI REPORTER
Dr. Benjamin S. Carson Sr., former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and a neurosurgeon, has been scheduled for a lecture next month at Sandhills Community College.
Carson’s March 18 talk is titled “Critical Role of Education in the Preservation of our Republic,” according to a news release announcing the appearance. Individual tickets will go for $75 a piece.
Carson is the year’s first speaker in the new Governor Holshouser Speaker Series. Former Gov. Jim Martin spoke as part of the series last September. Dr. M. Nixon “Nick” Ellis, a Southern Pines resident and virologist, gave the inaugural lecture last February.
The year-old series honors former North Carolina Governor James E. Holshouser, who led the state between 1973 to 1977 and was the first Republican governor of the 20th century.
Before moving into politics, Carson had a successful career as a neurosurgeon. At age 33, he became the director of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital. Carson achieved international recognition for his role in the first successful separation of conjoined twins in 1987.
After retiring from medicine in 2013, Carson gained political clout following a keynote speech he gave that year, which was seen as critical of then-President Barack Obama’s policies. He ran for president in 2016 but dropped out of the race following Super Tuesday, soon after endorsing former President Donald Trump. He joined Trump’s cabinet as HUD secretary in 2017.
Walter Bull, who heads up the lecture series, said that the organizing team didn’t specifically select Carson, but rather he came up because they had a contact.
“It came to us, believe it or not,” Bull said, calling it a “good opportunity.”
At a time when healthcare professionals are in dire need, Bull said that Carson’s lecture is meant to draw attention to Sandhills’ nursing program.
“Sandhills is doubling the capacity of their nursing program,” he noted.
The program is getting a new facility, which is under construction now. Foundation Hall, as it will be called, will enable the program to go from roughly 60 to 100 students in each class, Bull said. He hopes the lecture will shed light on the importance of SCC graduates to local hospitals and the pipeline that exists between them.
To this end, before the main lecture, Carson will give another lecture to current nursing students, recent graduates and representatives from the hospital and nursing program. Bull hopes that the talk could ignite future interest in the nursing profession, allowing people to “chew it around as a career” idea.
“The education at Sandhills goes beyond simply the stuff they do in the evenings for the residents,” Bull said. “They really have a great program.”
The first Holshouser lecture last February took place virtually, while the second in September was held in person. The event next month is scheduled to take place in person as well.
“We’re just assuming that the virus is going to clear,” Bull admitted. After peaking in January, COVID-19 case infections are still running high but off their record numbers.
Anyone who donates $250 to the lecture series will receive two tickets to Carson’s lecture and pre-lecture reception, as well as “first dibs” to any future events, Bull said. There will be an invitation-only breakfast with the Carsons the morning after the lecture as well.
The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. in the Owens Auditorium at the Bradshaw Performing Arts Center; founding donors will have the chance to attend a reception with Dr. Carson and his wife Candy on the same day at 5:30 p.m. in the performing arts center.
Bull said he anticipates at least two or three more lectures this year.
To purchase tickets and find out more about the lecture series, visit https://www.jehlectures.com.
Contact Evey Weisblat at (910) 693-2474 or evey@thepilot.com.
