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Abaarso Alum Mustafe Elmi Begins Masters Degree at Cambridge

Among Abaarso’s biggest achievements over the last few years is the return of its first classes of alums to Somaliland, including several as teachers at Abaarso. One of these alums, Mustafe Elmi, shown above with Somaliland Foreign Minister Dr Sacad Ali Shire, is now headed on from Abaarso to study for a Masters in Economic and Social History at Cambridge University in the UK.

Mustafe’s interest in economics began during his early life in Somaliland, where he saw a country recovering from war and people in search of opportunity. “The only way to build a country,” he decided, “is to have an educated populous, strong governmental institutions, and most importantly free markets.”

Mustafe’s passion developed at Abaarso, where he says the school “encouraged me to continue exploring different subjects and built my work ethic and confidence.” After a successful career at Abaarso, Mustafe earned a MasterCard Foundation Scholarship to attend university at Westminster College in Missouri, from which he graduated in May 2017.

Abaarso’s most important teaching, however, was “the value that comes with giving back to your community.” With that in mind, Mustafe returned to Abaarso after university to be the school’s Dean of Boys during the 2017-18 academic year, and also teach economics and reasoning. As Dean, Mustafe oversaw improvements in all areas of the boys’ dorms, building a culture of discipline and trust.

Now, as he prepares for the year ahead at Cambridge, Mustafe is focused on doing well in hopes of opening a pathway for future Abaarso students to study there. In the long term, he hopes to use his education in economics to establish a think tank or research center that affects public policy in Somaliland and the broader region. We wish Mustafe the best in these endeavors, and are grateful for his service to Abaarso, and to Somaliland.

Mubarik Mohamoud Returns to Abaarso

Abaarso alum Mubarik Mohamoud returned to campus a few weeks ago, on his first day back in Somaliland after five years in the United States. The event brought Abaarso full circle as one of our most celebrated alums, and a member of the school’s first class, returned at the beginning of Abaarso’s tenth anniversary year.

Mubarik spent the evening speaking in the school’s auditorium to a full crowd of students – all of whom had heard about him, but had never met him before. He shared the story of his early life and serendipitous journey to Abaarso, what the first few years of the school’s history were like, his time at MIT, and gave advice to students on achieving their academic and personal dreams.

After a turbulent childhood and very little early education, Mubarik quickly distinguished himself at Abaarso with both superior academic ability and character. His success made him the first Abaarso student to go abroad, receiving a full scholarship to attend Worcester Academy. There he continued to excel, eventually making it to MIT, where he graduated in May 2017 with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science.

Now back in Somaliland full-time, Mubarik is working on launching a website that will serve as an online forum to connect buyers and sellers across Somaliland to exchange various goods such as cars, machinery, furniture, and other common items. The website should be live in a few months.

Mubarik also plans to be directly involved with Abaarso by leading regular coding competitions at school for Abaarso’s young computer science students, who will appreciate the opportunity to test their skills under the supervision of one of their own role models. With both of these exciting initiatives, we look forward to the impact that Mubarik will continue to have on Abaarso, and on Somaliland, for years to come.