{"product_id":"it-takes-a-school-book-jonathan-starr-9781250159946","title":"It Takes a School","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA 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 dreams\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJonathan 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eIt Takes a School\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 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?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50371514401041,"sku":"CIN1250159946G","price":5.78,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51440970105105,"sku":"CIN1250159946VG","price":4.35,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1250159946.jpg?v=1751239782","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/it-takes-a-school-book-jonathan-starr-9781250159946","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}