The 2021 Roy Leadership Speaker Series and Career Week joined forces when a very special alumnus–Amaha Kassa ’90–addressed the Storm King Community via Zoom earlier this spring.  

Mr. Kassa, who is Storm King’s 2020 Alumni Humanitarian Award recipient and the founder and executive director of African Communities Together (ACT), spoke to a group of students, faculty, staff, and fellow alumni about his personal history, education, and dedication to humanitarian work.

ACT, founded by Mr. Kassa in 2013, is an organization that serves African immigrant families; helping them successfully integrate into American society and have their needs heard by policymakers. Today, ACT has emerged as a leading national voice on immigration policy and civil rights with offices in New York and Washington D.C.

Mr. Kassa himself fled to the U.S. from Ethiopia as a small child after a revolution toppled the government of his grandfather, Emperor Haile Selassie. His compelling journey is part of his inspiration for the work done through ACT.

“My personal story may be unusual, being the great grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie, the head of state of Ethiopia, the son of a princess, and landing in boarding school in Cornwall-on-Hudson,” began Mr. Kassa. “But it is also an ordinary one.  It is ordinary because other immigrants’ stories are similar to mine. Immigrants are like all of us– that’s why I do what I do,” he continued.

After graduating from The Storm King School, Mr. Kassa earned a law degree at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to founding ACT, he worked for 20 years as a labor and community organizer, nonprofit director, and social entrepreneur. He also spoke to the group about a career in nonprofit organizations, advising that when considering starting a nonprofit “it is important to know what the community’s needs are and who else is meeting those needs.”

According to Mr. Kassa, his time at Storm King had a “very positive impact” on his life and career: “SKS, being a small community, offered me the freedom to pursue what I was interested in. I had excellent teachers as mentors and supporters who helped me graduate early to attend college. SKS was an accepting place; a place that embraced different walks of life, and gave me community and confidence.”

As the evening concluded, Mr. Kassa reflected: “Storm King has been an important part of my journey and it has been fun for me to return virtually. I can tell that SKS is still a very welcoming and inclusive place.  Thank you for having me back.”