If you’ve been on social media in the past week, you’ve probably heard the story about Ahmed Mohamed. On Monday, the high school freshman was arrested at MacArthur High School. The cause for his arrest was a briefcase containing a homemade clock that he brought to impress his teachers. Instead of praising the student, teachers reported his “suspicious” briefcase, believing it to be a bomb, and eventually brought police to campus to arrest him.
The story has blown up over social media, trending the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. One of the contributors to this trend was none other than POTUS himself, Barack Obama. On Wednesday, Obama tweeted his support for the young student, and invited him to the White House next month for Astronomy night, which allows students to talk to government scientists and NASA astronauts.
Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.
— President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015
Hillary also gave Ahmed a shout-out on Twitter:
Assumptions and fear don’t keep us safe—they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building. https://t.co/ywrlHUw3g1
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 16, 2015
The support for Ahmed amongst the tech community has been overwhelming, to say the least. Mark Zuckerberg encouraged Ahmed to continue inventing, writing in a Facebook post that “the future belongs to people like Ahmed.”
You’ve probably seen the story about Ahmed, the 14 year old student in Texas who built a clock and was arrested when he…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, September 16, 2015
#IStandWithAhmed was tweeted by bigwig tech companies like Google, Twitter, and Box, all of them offering the opportunity to visit their companies and consider an internship with them.
Hey Ahmed- we’re saving a seat for you at this weekend’s Google Science Fair…want to come? Bring your clock! #IStandwithAhmed
— Google Science Fair (@googlescifair) September 16, 2015
Hi @IStandWithAhmed, we building things at @twitter too. Would you consider interning with us? We’d love it — DM us! #IStandWithAhmed
— Twitter (@twitter) September 16, 2015
Ahmed, I know you’ve been invited to the White House and Facebook. But, we both know you’re enterprise software guy at heart. Come by Box!
— Aaron Levie (@levie) September 16, 2015
The highlight of all this media attention came on Wednesday, during an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. MIT astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein was brought on the show as a surprise guest, and praised Ahmed for his work. Ahmed has called MIT his dream school, and meeting Prescod-Weinstein was the icing on the cake. She praised his work, calling him her “ideal student,” and claimed that “a creative, independent thinker like [Ahmed]” is the exact student that top-tier schools like MIT and Harvard look for. Chanda extended an offer for Ahmed to visit the school, and even tried to convince the teen to consider the mathematical side of physics.
As social media users and a bunch of top-tier officials continue to bombard Ahmed with support, it appears that the student has a bright future ahead of him. Now he has to make a very important decision: which prestigious tech company or school should he visit first?