The brothers, both students at Aurora charter the Lotus School for Excellence, offer free tutoring to K-12 students in Aurora and Denver through their organization Bright Minds, which they created this summer.
"We saw in our community, and mainly in the Denver metro area and Aurora, that there weren't a lot of opportunities for free tutoring," Salahdiin says. "SAT tutors can go up to even $1,000, $1,500, and it's really expensive, especially for those who are in low-income housing."
The Adan brothers were born and raised in Aurora, a city that boasts a diverse population; more than 160 languages are spoken in the schools. Their family immigrated from Somalia in 2000, eight years before Salahdiin was born; Abdullahi is fifteen.
Salahdiin credits his city for having "a lot of parks...a lot of libraries," but says Aurora's diverse immigrant population struggles to access needed services for upward mobility.
"It's a very supportive city, but the one thing that is bad is the lack of accessibility for extra help, like tutoring," Salahdiin says. "The library can only go so far. What if you need extra help? The library can help you with seventh-grade, eighth-grade math, but it won't give you the one-on-one experience that you need."
Salahdiin says they're prepared to tutor in any subject, but the Adans have noticed the biggest need is in math. Their students are mostly in middle school, and the brothers have helped them study SAT English, middle and elementary school math and social studies subjects like history and U.S. government.
"Right now, we're seeing a big problem in mathematics," Salahdiin says. "Most of the students we tutor are under, like, fourteen years old right now...all of the stuff they're asking us is stuff we already studied, and if it's anything that we might have forgotten, a quick Google search will jog our memory, and we'll be fine."
Bright Minds tutors come from Aurora Public Schools, where three-quarters of the district students receive free or reduced lunch, though others attend Denver Public and Cherry Creek schools. Bright Minds tutor mostly Arab, Black and Latino students, but the priority is low-income students, Salahdiin adds.
According to the Colorado Measure of Academic Success, a statewide standardized test, Black and Hispanic students consistently have the lowest scores in math regardless of grade level. 
Mayor Mike Coffman invited Salahdiin (center) and Abdullahi to his office in August to praise their initiative.
Courtesy of the City of Aurora
The brothers handle most of the tutoring, but they brought on two volunteers during the summer who are still with the program. They started out by tutoring at home and over Zoom, but now host group tutoring sessions. This summer, they say they've helped more than fifty students.
Earlier this month, the Adans partnered with Brothers Property Management, a nonprofit operating affordable housing projects in the metro area, to start doing group tutoring for upwards of twenty kids at a time at Eagle Meadows Homes, 14875 East Second Avenue in Aurora.
With school at Lotus back in session since August 12, Salahdiin and Abdullahi are trying to balance their schedule by tutoring every other week on Mondays for four hours. However, they're also looking for student volunteers to help them tutor others, and have added three more volunteers this month. They have an online form for student volunteers to sign up, and Salahdiin says they encourage students to consider collecting volunteer hours with Bright Minds for their college resumes.
Salahdiin wants Bright Minds to continue after he and his brother go to college in a couple of years, but they're still building the organization.
Earlier this month, the Adans partnered with Brothers Property Management, a nonprofit operating affordable housing projects in the metro area, to start doing group tutoring for upwards of twenty kids at a time at Eagle Meadows Homes, 14875 East Second Avenue in Aurora.
With school at Lotus back in session since August 12, Salahdiin and Abdullahi are trying to balance their schedule by tutoring every other week on Mondays for four hours. However, they're also looking for student volunteers to help them tutor others, and have added three more volunteers this month. They have an online form for student volunteers to sign up, and Salahdiin says they encourage students to consider collecting volunteer hours with Bright Minds for their college resumes.
Salahdiin wants Bright Minds to continue after he and his brother go to college in a couple of years, but they're still building the organization.
"We don't want this to stop with us. We want it to keep going," Salahdiin says. "We're only two people right now, and there's only so much we can do. But if we had, maybe, ten people, we could have more of an outreach."
Salahdiin says he wants to be a corporate lawyer, and is leaning towards attending the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, though he hasn't made up his mind. Abdullahi wants to study at Fordham University in New York and become a neurosurgeon. However, Salahdiin says that he wants to help people struggling with the immigration system in the country, too.
"With immigration, a lot of people can't get adequate counseling," he says. "Or if they do, it's kind of subpar. The pro bono lawyer is overworked, or, frankly, they just don't care. That's what I want to do."
Their current work is already receiving praise. The Adans were recently recognized by Mayor Mike Coffman, who invited them to his office on Monday, August 18, and praised their initiative as an asset to Aurora.
"Salahdiin and Abdullahi's drive to help other young people struggling academically is a testament to their character and makes all of Aurora proud," Coffman said while meeting the Adan brothers. "Their willingness to put in the work to take that drive and turn it into action shows they also have an entrepreneurial spirit that I believe will benefit them and this city into the future."
Parents and students can request a free tutoring session on the Bright Minds website, which the two brothers created themselves. Salahdiin, also the social media manager for the Muslim Student Association at his school, says they've been promoting Bright Minds on Nextdoor, TikTok and Instagram, where they also post updates and tips.
