Giving hope in Horn of Africa

Giving hope in Horn of Africa
City native to be honored


By Danielle M. Horn TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
2 comments | Add a comment

WORCESTER — Jonathan Starr said some people have reacted incredulously upon learning that he abandoned a lucrative career as an investment banker to move to Africa and pursue a far less financially rewarding path.

The 33-year-old Worcester native and Worcester Academy graduate founded a nonprofit, four-year school and graduate school in Somaliland, a country of 3.5 million in the Horn of Africa. He relocated from the Boston area to the impoverished country, where he leads an effort to establish a sustainable institution that will meet standards of any boarding school in the world.

“With some people, there’s a lot of disbelief. Some think I’m a little crazy,” Mr. Starr said in a phone interview yesterday, while visiting family in Worcester. “But I feel I was put in the position to make a difference. Not everyone is lucky enough to be in that position.”

Mr. Starr’s alma mater will honor him today with Worcester Academy’s Young Alumnus Recognition Award, noting that Abaarso Tech, in its inaugural year, is attracting top local and international minds to teach Somaliland’s most promising youth. The school, which welcomed a freshman class of 50 in the fall, plans to add 50 students a year until it reaches 200. The associated graduate school trains Somaliland business leaders and is the first of its kind in the country.

“We’re always looking to recognize graduates who are achieving success, and exemplify the school motto, ‘To achieve the honorable,’ ” said Neil Isakson, director of external communications for Worcester Academy. “Jonathan’s pursuit is unusual, and exciting at the same time.”

But how did a Worcester kid, whose ties to the city are so deep that he named his investment firm after his elementary school, end up pouring all his efforts into a small African country?

Mr. Starr said he learned about Somaliland, where only 33 percent of school-aged children are in school, when his aunt married a man from there. He visited the country, learned about its lack of educational opportunities, and became consumed with thoughts about how he could help.

A 1998 graduate of Emory University with a bachelor’s degree in economics, he had worked as a research associate in the taxable bond division of Fidelity Investments, and as an analyst at two private investment firms before founding his own company, Flagg Street Capital, in 2004. He led the $170 million firm until liquidating it in 2008. Since then, his focus has been in Somaliland.

Teachers recruited from across the country are paid $3,000 a year and are provided housing. Mr. Starr said he is not on the school’s payroll and is living off earnings from his prior career.

“A lot of nonprofits in Somaliland are not making much of an impact and they’re paying Western salaries to be there,” Mr. Starr said. “Our teachers, we know, are there because they want to make a difference.”

Mr. Isaakson said Worcester Academy is in the early stages of forming a sister school relationship with Abaarso Tech, one that will likely involve collection efforts for the school and interaction between students.

“I think this partnership will be wonderful for both schools,” Mr. Starr said. “If done right, the ability for cultural exchange and education will be eye opening to both sides.

“We’re trying to educate the most talented kids in the country, and by doing that, our impact can be really enormous,” he said. “Right now, Somaliland is tenuous — though it is safe now, long-term, if it doesn’t develop, it could follow the paths of its neighbors. Some people may think this doesn’t affect them, as Americans, but it does. When you have a bunch of unemployed, uneducated people, it’s ripe for some bad behavior and that very much does affect America.”