How one African school gets kids into top US universities

CNN Money 23 April 2016

A small high school in Africa seems to have figured out a formula to get kids into top US colleges and Ivy League universities on full scholarships. Nearly 60 students who studied at Somaliland's Abaarso School have been accepted to American and international universities since 2013, including Harvard, MIT and Carnegie Mellon, writes Alanna Petroff for CNN Money.

The boarding school – home to about 200 predominantly underprivileged students in grades 7 to 12 – was founded in 2009 by an American hedge fund manager, Jonathan Starr. Starr left his job in finance to do something different. A family connection led him to Somaliland, a self-declared independent state in Somalia that is still recovering from decades of civil war and a severe drought.

Starr said the majority of students receive full scholarships that also cover living expenses. His students have been granted more than US$12 million in scholarships already, an impressive sum when you consider that the school has received about US$3 million in funding from Starr, his friends on Wall Street, and the United States Agency for International Development. "People say a lot of bad things about Wall Street and hedge funds. It's mostly them [that are supporting the school]," said Starr.
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