On Monday, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was placed in handcuffs and led out of his school after police thought he brought a “hoax bomb” to his suburban Dallas high school.
By Wednesday, his story had gone viral, there were no charges filed, and the teenager had the support of some pretty influential people.
First former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweeted her support. Then President Barack Obama invited him to the White House.
Next, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg invited him to the company’s Palo Alto headquarters.
A researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also invited the teenager — who described his hobby as “inventing stuff” — to visit the university. The teenager was incredibly excited, tweeting MIT was his “dream school.”
@IBJIYONGI @anildash I would love to!! MIT is my dream school.
— Ahmed Mohamed (@IStandWithAhmed) September 16, 2015
He also received an invite to the University of Texas at Austin by astrophysicist Sarah Tuttle.
@IBJIYONGI @IStandWithAhmed @anildash Absolutely! Ahmed, there are a bunch of people here in Austin who would love to talk astro & physics!
— Sarah Tuttle (@niais) September 16, 2015