ISO: The Assist

ISO: The Assist is a weekly talk series hosted by Anis Benyoucef, a University of Colorado Denver Mechanical Engineering graduate and 6x intern with experience at Apple, Zoox, Stanford, and more.Each episode features real conversations with guests who are quietly making an impact in their communities — people who have been overlooked, under-platformed, and underestimated. No gatekeeping. No performance. Just game.On EP. 08, the season finale of The Assist season one, we have Laolu. Laolu Oke grew up in Denver, walked onto a Division II court, and became the most dominant defender in his conference two years in a row. Instead of settling, he entered the transfer portal, went Division I, and finished his MBA while still competing at the highest level of college basketball. Then he took his game overseas and won a championship in Denmark and then played in France. Laolu is proof that the work you put in when nobody is watching eventually puts you on a stage the whole world can see.The Assist exists because we spend too much time looking outside of our direct proximity for inspiration, mentorship, and guidance. The truth is there are incredibly bright, accomplished individuals everywhere, hidden by geography, circumstance, or simply because no one gave them a platform.This is the platform.Rooted in the ISO mission to inspire ambition, elevate overlooked talent, and rebuild community pathways to success, The Assist is the first chapter of something much bigger. A basketball-inspired, faith-driven developmental movement built on the belief that isolation was never meant to be you vs you. It means going up against someone who challenges you, pours into you, and sets you up to score. There are 6 pathways of development - The Seeker, The Builder, The Warrior, The Founder, The Healer, and The Reformer. Each week we will bring someone from each pathway.Every Sunday. Every week. One conversation at a time.

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ISO: The Assist is a weekly talk series hosted by Anis Benyoucef, a University of Colorado Denver Mechanical Engineering graduate and 6x intern with experience at Apple, Zoox, Stanford, and more.Each episode features real conversations with guests who are quietly making an impact in their communities — people who have been overlooked, underplatformed, and underestimated. No gatekeeping. No performance. Just game.On EP. 07 of The Assist - Founder Pathway. Abdulla started his career building critical infrastructure as a civil engineer. Then he built something of his own. A 2x business owner behind 218 Customs and Coffee Story by Barakah Brews, he broke the generational expectation of staying comfortable and bet on himself instead. And through it all, he never stopped giving back. He also runs talks and lectures at local mosques and pours into his community the same way he pours into his businesses, keeping faith at the center of it all.The Assist exists because we spend too much time looking outside of our direct proximity for inspiration, mentorship, and guidance. The truth is there are incredibly bright, accomplished individuals everywhere, hidden by geography, circumstance, or simply because no one gave them a platform.This is the platform.Rooted in the ISO mission to inspire ambition, elevate overlooked talent, and rebuild community pathways to success, The Assist is the first chapter of something much bigger. A basketball-inspired, gamified developmental platform and cultural movement built on the belief that isolation was never meant to be you vs you. It means going up against someone who challenges you, pours into you, and sets you up to score. There are 6 pathways of development - The Seeker, The Builder, The Warrior, The Founder, The Healer, and The Reformer. Each week we will bring someone from each pathway.Every Sunday. Every week. One conversation at a time.

ISO: The Assist is a weekly talk series hosted by Anis Benyoucef, a University of Colorado Denver Mechanical Engineering graduate and 6x intern with experience at Apple, Zoox, Stanford, and more.Each episode features real conversations with guests who are quietly making an impact in their communities — people who have been overlooked, underplatformed, and underestimated. No gatekeeping. No performance. Just game.On EP. 06 of The Assist - Reformer Pathway. Josué didn't just experience the system from the outside. He decided to get inside it and change it. Growing up watching his family navigate blue collar work, incarceration, and immigration challenges in Montbello and Denver, he saw firsthand how the legal system could either destroy people or defend them. Now a full-ride law student at CU Boulder and a 2024 Islamic Scholarship Fund scholar with experience in civil rights, immigration litigation, and public defense, Josue is building a career around the people the system was never designed to protect.The Assist exists because we spend too much time looking outside of our direct proximity for inspiration, mentorship, and guidance. The truth is there are incredibly bright, accomplished individuals everywhere, hidden by geography, circumstance, or simply because no one gave them a platform.This is the platform.Rooted in the ISO mission to inspire ambition, elevate overlooked talent, and rebuild community pathways to success, The Assist is the first chapter of something much bigger. A basketball-inspired, faith-driven developmental movement built on the belief that isolation was never meant to be you vs you. It means going up against someone who challenges you, pours into you, and sets you up to score. There are 6 pathways of development - The Seeker, The Builder, The Warrior, The Founder, The Healer, and The Reformer. Each week we will bring someone from each pathway.Every Sunday. Every week. One conversation at a time.

On EP. 05 of The Assist - Healer Pathway. We have Ahmed Ahmed. He moved to America from Sudan his junior year of high school and ended up at one of the best universities in the world, Washington University St Louis, where he studied biomedical engineering. He built his collegiate career doing medicine and research, and despite his rigorous coursework, he was the president of the MSA at Wash U. After undergrad, he conducted research for a year at U Chicago in Emergency Medicine. He is now a first year medical student at CU Anschutz and also a co-president of the American Muslim Medical Student Association chapter. His story is one of those ones that when you hear it, you realize there are no excuses.

This week's ISO: Renat Mohamed

On EP. 04 of The Assist, we feature Renat Mohamed, a Structural Design Engineer, McNair Scholar, STEMblazers alum, and outspoken champion for women in STEM. She's designing infrastructure that serves underserved communities and pulling the next generation of women into engineering at the same time. This is what pull as you climb looks like in real life.

This week's ISO: We sit down with a Denver-born student of knowledge whose journey took him from a boarding school in Kenya to the streets of Cairo, and back home to serve the very community he grew up in.

Kamal Mahamed shares what it actually costs to hold onto your faith and identity in the west and how his travels abroad built him into the man he is today. While living abroad, there was uncertainty, instability, and moments he didn't see coming. This is a conversation about sacrifice, identity, and what it means to leave everything in search of something real.

The Seeker Pathway. Leave Everything to Find Everything.

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You're Not Lost.

You're In Search Of.

Most people in STEM are never shown the full playbook. They figure it out alone or they don't figure it out at all.

In this episode, we called an ISO against the Founder Anis Benyoucef. He opens up about his own engineering journey and gives key gems from what he learned. Coming from a non-target commuter school to internships at Apple, Zoox, and more, he breaks down the real networking strategies, resume principles, and career moves that actually work.

This is accumulated game from the past 6 years consolidated to one hour. There's much more to cover in the future such as technical interviews, getting the offer, and succeeding during your internship/job.

If you're in engineering, STEM, or trying to figure out how to break into your industry, this one's for you.

It's not you vs you anymore.

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We've been told that growth requires isolation. That it's you vs you. ISO is redefining that using the basketball definition of an isolation, which is to try and score against a defender who is going to challenge you, sharpen you, and push you to your limit.

ISO is a basketball-inspired, faith-driven development platform and cultural movement built to inspire ambition, elevate overlooked talent, and rebuild community pathways to success.

That's why The Assist was created. Every Sunday, ISO Founder Anis Benyoucef calls an ISO against the people in our communities who are making real impact — the ones who've been overlooked, underplatformed, and underestimated — to give real game and share their playbook to success.

In ISO, there are 6 development pathways, or 6 archetypes.

The Builder, The Seeker, The Healer, The Reformer, The Founder, and The Warrior.

This season, we'll be highlighting an exceptional person in each pathway. This is how we start inspiring ambition, elevating overlooked talent, and rebuilding community pathways to success.

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It's not you vs you anymore.