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A story of David and Goliath proportions, how an American hedge fund manager created a unique school in Somaliland whose students, against all odds, have come to achieve success beyond anyone's wildest dreamsJonathan Starr, once a cutthroat hedge fund manager, is not your traditional do-gooder, and in 2009, when he decided to found Abaarso, a secondary school in Somaliland, the choice seemed crazy to even his closest friends. "Why," they wondered, "would he turn down a life of relative luxury to relocate to an armed compound in a breakaway region of the world's #1 failed state?" To achieve his mission, Starr would have to overcome profound cultural differences, broken promises, and threats to his safety and that of his staff. It Takes a School is the story of how an abstract vision became a transformative reality, as Starr set out to build a school in a place forgotten by the world. It is the story of a skeptical and clan-based society learning to give way to trust. And it's the story of the students themselves, including a boy from a family of nomads who took off on his own in search of an education and a girl who waged a hunger strike in order to convince her strict parents to send her to Abaarso. Abaarso has placed forty graduates and counting in American universities, from Harvard to MIT, and sends Somaliland a clear message: its children can compete with anyone in the world. Now the initial question Starr was asked demands another: "If such a success can happen in an unrecognized breakaway region of Somalia, can it not happen anywhere?"
About the Author
Jonathan Starr was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, 11 days before the bicentennial. After running a hedge fund named after his public elementary school, Jonathan left his life in the US and relocated to Somaliland, an independent breakaway region of what is officially Somalia. It was then that Jonathan founded the Abaarso School of Science and Technology, the graduates of which he hoped would develop their country. In the time since Jonathan has dedicated his life to Somali education, and he and his students have overcome tremendous obstacles to achieve success beyond many's imaginations. It Takes a School is the story of this journey from 2008 to 2015. While the book must end, Jonathan and Abaarso's story continue to play out in real time.
