WOODLAWN, Md. (WJZ)—Reading toward success. That was the message from pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson for thousands of Baltimore County students.

Andrea Fujii has the story.

There was a warm welcome for Dr. Ben Carson who many of these Woodlawn high schoolers know of and respect.

“Personally for me I think it’s very important because I want to become a nurse when I grow up,” said Doneyse Bell, Woodlawn senior.

The world-renowned Johns Hopkins pediatric neurosurgeon is kicking off American Education Week with the sixth annual Ben Carson Reading Day.

“Many studies have shown that readers tend to be academically successful and tend to be people who don’t drop out of school,” said Carson.

He hopes to pass on the message that reading helped get him where he is today.

“If I was going to be successful coming out of the environment that I was in, I was going to have to make myself into a valuable person,” Carson said.

And he did that through books. And so across the country Carson has established 64 reading rooms in eight states, including one that opened up last year at Jacksonville Elementary.

Future anesthesiologist Kias Cooper says he relates to the doctor’s humble beginnings.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from you can always achieve,” he said.

Opening books to unlocking immeasurable capabilities.

Carson’s talk was also broadcast to all Baltimore County middle school classrooms.