Program lead
Alex Golden
Class of 2027 · 12th grade
Alex organized Regis’s fundraiser for Abaarso and wrote about Harry Lee’s visit to Regis. Now he pairs each tutor with a student and checks in every week with Mr. Guleid at Abaarso.
The school your student attends
How Abaarso got here
Last year, Harry Lee, CEO of the Abaarso Network, came to Regis to speak during Global Perspectives Week. This is the story he told, and this program grew out of that visit.
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Jonathan Starr, who founded Abaarso, with two of its students. The beginningJonathan Starr, an American investor, starts Abaarso School on a remote hilltop outside Hargeisa. The area’s name comes from abaar, the Somali word for drought, and water and food are constant problems.
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A year later
The school already has its first 100 students.
Abaarso students outside the school. -
Abaarso graduates at their college commencement. First graduatesMany in the first graduating class win full scholarships to universities including Yale, Harvard, and MIT.
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The network grows
Harry Lee, who found Abaarso after studying at UVA and is now the network’s CEO, starts six Kaabe schools for kindergarten through 8th grade. The network also opens Barwaaqo University, a university for women.
Adding a handprint to a school wall in the network. -
An Abaarso graduating class. TodayAbaarso is a full-time boarding school with about 120 students per grade. It tests 7th and 8th graders across the country, admits about the top 10%, and offers full scholarships.
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Last year
Harry Lee speaks at Regis during Global Perspectives Week and tells the school’s story.
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Now
The visit becomes a program: Regis students tutor Abaarso’s 9th and 10th graders for the SAT every Sunday.
Harry Lee’s goal is a cycle: Kaabe schools prepare students for Abaarso, Abaarso prepares them for college, and graduates come home as the next generation’s teachers and leaders.
Adapted from Alex Golden’s Golden Pigeon article, “What Harry Lee and Abaarso Taught Us.”
