Teen whiz Ahmed Mohamed was reportedly the center of attention at Google’s Science Fair, where he was one of almost two dozen finalists who came at the tech giant’s invitation, the New York Daily News reports.
“Curious young scientists, inventors and builders like [Ahmed] should be encouraged and empowered,” Mariette DiChristina, Scientific American’s editor-in-chief, said in a statement Monday for the science fair.
And certainly, after the traumatizing debacle that had the teen briefly arrested, encouragement has been pouring out from social media, encouraging him to keep building. The teen has also been invited to the White House and will also be traveling to New York, where he is expected to meet dignitaries from the United Nations. How’s that for a setback being the setup for a comeback?
On Monday, Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, formally withdrew his three children from the Irving Independent School District. This comes after the 14-year-old’s homemade clock was taken as a bomb threat at MacArthur High. Ahmed lost interest in returning to the school after officials there called the police on him.
“Ahmed said, ‘I don’t want to go to MacArthur,’” Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed told the Dallas Morning News. “These kids aren’t going to be happy there.”
In the meantime, the family is planning to do some traveling, keeping Ahmed on a little minivacation of sorts. First they will stop by New York City, of course, for the U.N. gathering, and then, once a visa is approved, they’ll be embarking on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the Morning News notes.
Read more at the New York Daily News and the Dallas Morning News.