http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/02/kettering_professor_finds_succ.html
Kettering professor finds success against odds, works to help children
By Kurt Nagl
FLINT, MI - Growing up in Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, Petros Gheresus did not have a television or a refrigerator in his house.
There wasn't even electricity.
He had a minimal education and worked six days a week as a janitor, using the money to support his mother and family.
Sometimes he would shine shoes on the side to make extra.
Fast forward more than 40 years and Gheresus is the chair of industrial engineering at Kettering University and actively involved in the robotics program.
He founded both the LEGO Building project through Kettering and the Academically Interested Minds program.
Gheresus has become a pillar in the Flint community, some 7,000 miles away from where he was born and thought he would never leave.
He thanked two things for his unlikely success during a presentation Sunday, Feb. 8 at New Zion Baptist Church in Flint: God and education.
"As an engineer, I am always looking for proof of why things happen," Gheresus said. "But there was no formula or script to me getting here. It was through the invisible hands and miracle of God."
Gheresus was the African American history speaker at the church Sunday, during which he shared his story and vision for the future with about 40 church and community members.
Lillian Henry, historian and chair of the Black History Month program at Zion, has been good friends with Gheresus since he came to Flint. She knew he would be the perfect person to share a success story and motivate the community.
"Pete does so much for the kids in the community. I often wonder if he sleeps," Henry said. "He is just passionate about educating young minds."
Gheresus is convinced all the events that brought him to Flint, along with the improbable chances and strokes of luck, were orchestrated by God.
But it was through education, he said, that he found success.
Gheresus graduated high school at the age of 23, and went on to achieve higher education and eventually became a professor.
His success has also driven him to help children in the Flint area, be it through after school programs, weekend learning events or simply "leading by example."
But Gheresus said more needs to be done.
Too many people ignore kids born into poverty and never give them a chance, Gheresus said, so the odds are stacked against them from the start.
"We are often shortsighted. Many of us say it is not our problem, but it is. What sort of legacy do we want to leave for our kids?" he said.
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Received on Mon Feb 09 2015 - 05:14:56 EST
