Abdoulaye Maiga joined the staff of Student Veterans of America (SVA) in September 2014 as an intern and was officially hired on October of the same year. He currently serves as a Technology Analyst ensuring that the organization has all the infrastructure it needs and that his teams are up and running efficiently. A native from the Republic of Mali in West Africa, he first moved to the United States in 2001 to pursue his university studies after finishing high school in the Ivory Coast just prior to the start the Ivorian civil war.

After obtaining his Bachelor’s degree in business management, specializing in Entrepreneurship at Virginia Tech, he returned to Mali to work for a year before moving to France, where he worked and further studied management for four years. It was there that he discovered his love for information technology (IT) and decided to pursue an advanced degree in it. He earned his Master’s degree in information science with a specialization in Computer Security in September 2014.

Coming from a background where good education is scarce, Abdoulaye encourages every student veteran to satisfy their thirst for knowledge. During his spare time, Abdoulaye enjoys container gardening, growing vegetables on his balcony and volunteering for a local nonprofit operating in his home country.