An interview with Lydia Berhanu, OMA&D’s 2026 honoree for Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Lydia Berhanu is her own mentor. That’s not to say the University of Washington senior didn’t grow up in a supportive household (she did) or wasn’t surrounded by supportive educators (she was). But when it comes to illuminating her path forward, she’s been the one holding the flashlight.
Berhanu has charted her own path as the first in her family born in the U.S., and as a passionate student advocate and grassroots organizer who refuses to let anything stand in her way.
Born and raised in Lynnwood, Washington, Berhanu is studying law, societies and justice in the UW College of Arts & Sciences, with a minor in informatics, and she plans to attend law school. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D) celebrates Berhanu’s accomplishments, including her many campus leadership roles and her hands-on work to make education more accessible.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Tell us about your journey to the UW.
My parents are migrants from Ethiopia — I was the first person in my family to be born outside of Africa. [When I applied to college] it was a scary idea to leave the only family members I had in the States. At the same time, when you’re growing up in Washington, the UW is always a goal, and it was such a big goal of mine.
I was really drawn to the law, societies and justice major. I wanted to go to law school, but I didn’t want to sit in a room and learn only about how the government operates. I’m drawn to an interdisciplinary approach to what justice looks like on a person-to-person basis. I chose the UW so I could stay close to my family, grow as a person and discover what justice means and how I can use that in my legal career.
When did you decide you wanted to go into law?
I’ve known since eighth grade. My parents are both in health care — they run an adult family home, which is a residential care facility for disabled adults. So I’ve gotten to see a different side of health care and how policy affects people.
Once I was old enough, my parents tried to find places for me to fit into the business and help them, whether that was reading legal documents or calling pharmacies or therapists. It showed me how policy affects people’s everyday lives. I’m interested in law because I’ve witnessed firsthand how it affects people who can’t speak up for themselves.
Can you tell us about your work with the ASUW?
ASUW is the student government on campus, and I got involved my freshman year. I was an intern for the Office of Government Relations, the ASUW’s official lobbying arm, which meant assisting in creating the University’s legislative agenda and helping with the annual legislative reception, where we host state representatives, big names in law, politicians. We had a large legislative agenda that year — involving student scholarships, childcare for parent-students, things like that — and my main job was ensuring that we had enough student testimony at the legislative reception. I also got to do a lot of in-person lobbying, going down to Olympia, meeting representatives, meeting politicians.
My sophomore year, I was the office coordinator. I sat in on ASUW committee meetings and took minutes. One meeting was the Joint Commissions Committee (JCC), which includes all the identity- and advocacy-based commissions on campus, from the Black Student Commission to the Office of Inclusive Design, Student Disability Commission, Office of International Students, etc., that the director of diversity chairs every year. I was in these meetings every week, and when you’re taking minutes, you’re not supposed to be interjecting and giving opinions. But I had a lot of opinions! I’d be writing these minutes like, “I wish I could say this. I wish I could provide this sort of advice to XYZ commission director.”
That year, I ran for [and was elected] the director of diversity efforts. So last year, my junior year, I got to chair the JCC and help them ensure that not only are we providing resources for students, we are aligning ourselves with the UW’s diversity blueprint. That was a crazy year, watching all these executive orders related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility flying through the air. Trying to navigate that was the biggest challenge of the job, specifically in those committee meetings because it was like, “You should know the answers to this question and what’s going to happen.”
Since I sat on the board of directors, I got to write and pass board bills. My favorite bill I wrote was creating a task force for the National Panhellenic Council (NPHC), which is a council made up of nine Greek organizations that are all meant for Black and African American students. I’m a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, which is a part of that council. I created a task force for NPHC to have plots on campus. Plots are basically this historical monument that the council used to represent themselves at campuses nationwide. It’s a monumental type of art piece that sits outside, all nine gathered around each other. People in the past at the UW have created that task force and brought this idea to create it, but unfortunately, it never succeeded. I don’t know what I did to be different, but this task force was really successful in getting UW Facilities to agree to take on this project.
We managed to acquire $75,000 through ASUW to help start designs being created and help fund that part of the project.
This year’s national theme for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, chosen by the King Center, is about building community. What does that look like for you, and how does it show up in your work?
For me, building community means building a group of people in a similar situation and similar point of life and allowing them to bounce off one another and grow together. Talking specifically about RSOs [registered student organizations] and ASUW, the whole point of those organizations is to support students. That means creating a group of people that are meant to be there for one another. ASUW is completely run by students. It’s a group of people who know what it feels like to be a student and are willing to take the extra step to make sure students are having a good time, feel supported and are being advocated for.
Community is a group of people who are willing to do the work for one another. For example, I am the president of the Black Pre-Law Club at the UW right now, and I helped create that last year. And now that I’m studying for my LSAT, having that community and making sure they are learning and I’m learning from them, that vice-versa type of growth and support is what I think community is.
My work has always been hearing what students are feeling, and creating support for them to feel they belong.
What role has mentorship played in your life?
Since I was the first person in my family to be born outside of Africa, I’ve been my own mentor. I go out looking for information. My parents have almost never checked my school grades, because they’re just like, “You got it.” I’ve always made sure I was OK.
Walking into college, I was aware that I needed someone else to ask questions to. My first year, I didn’t find that person. But my sophomore year I joined Alpha Kappa Alpha, and then I was provided literally hundreds of college-educated women just like me who were looking to help undergraduates. We have graduate advisers who pour so much into us, and they’ve always been there to help me. And for the first time in my life, I have women coming up to me saying, “How can I help you?”
Now, as a senior, I have a lot of family members who look to me for support. Every year since I got into the UW, I’ve done college application work voluntarily. The day UW applications are due is literally the worst day of my life [laughs]. But that’s how I found myself in the mentor role: I’m obsessed with higher education and making sure everyone I know is able to access it if they have the desire to. That stems from watching my parents struggle, coming to America. My dad received higher education in Ethiopia, but when he came to America, the credits didn’t count. I’ve always been an advocate for higher education and making sure that I fulfilled that dream of mine and that dream of his, for the both of us.
What are you working on now that you’re excited about?
This year I get to work with [UW Vice President for Minority Affairs and Diversity and University Diversity Officer] Rickey Hall more. Rickey and I were both on the DEI Advisory Committee for the Board of Regents last year, and now I work for OMA&D chairing the Student Advisory Board. It’s a cool experience, working more grassroots with the students, being in a room with RSO leaders who are there to gain help helping their constituents.
I’m also the president for the Bruce Harrell Black Pre-Law Association at the UW, and I’m really excited to see what I can do there. Right now, we are starting this Black pre-law journal that I hope to get published by the end of this quarter with the team. That’s going to be about not only the history of Black Americans, but also the relationship between Black Americans and policy and law. I’m excited to provide pre-law students with more resources.