The first time Deqa Aden ’14 saw snow, it was in the middle of her AP Calculus class at Worcester Academy.
“I told the entire school that I had never seen snow,” laughs Aden, who came to the Hilltop from Somaliland, in East Africa. “We’re in class, facing the teacher, taking notes, and then my teacher stopped and said, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s snowing.’ And I left class and went out to the quad to play!”
Aden attended the Abaarso School of Science and Technology in Somaliland, which was founded by Jonathan Starr ’10, who was instrumental in getting Aden to the U.S., quite literally. He traveled with her and several other students from Somaliland, helping them navigate the complexities of the U.S. immigration system. Aden was not able to go home for visits during her time in the U.S., because of her status on a student visa, and says she found a family atmosphere in Worcester. Classmates invited her to their homes so she could have some time off campus during the week, or to stay with them during school breaks.
“Everybody really tried their best to make sure that I felt at home and less lonely,” Aden says. “Some of the faculty really kind of took me in as their adopted daughter, in a way.”
Aden spent two years at Worcester Academy before attending Grinnell College in Iowa, and then got a job at the World Bank in Washington, DC, working on economic development projects in Central Asia. With that experience in hand, Aden wanted to return to a more local, grassroots focus and went back to Somaliland to work at a business incubator that supports startups owned by women.
In 2022, Aden was named an Obama Foundation Scholar, which brought her to Chicago, where she still lives. She earned a master’s degree in international development, met President Obama, and gained access to mentors and peers who can help her in her continued quest to support women in her native country and around the world.
She hopes to be an agent of change who stays connected to the communities she wants to serve, starting with her work as a board member at the Common Good Institute, a nonprofit to combat gender-based violence, and GirlForward, a nonprofit that supports girls who have been displaced by persecution.
“I’m grateful for the experience that I had at Worcester Academy, that was given to me as a gift by alumni who paid it forward,” says Aden, who was supported by Harold Emmons '60 and his wife, Laurie. “And I hope to be a gift to the world.”