While growing up in Seattle, Asiya-Bontu Mohammed actively worked to uplift the local Oromo community — an ethnic group from Ethiopia.
As a volunteer at the Oromo Cultural Center in Seattle, she helped create enriching opportunities for Oromo youths, including field trips and STEM mentorships. She also helped organize community-building activities, like skating events, and family engagement events with Oromo professionals to help bridge the gap between family expectations and current experiences of Oromo youth from kindergarten through college.