Member Spotlight: Candida Bernice Aina, Fall 2017 Inductee

My name is Candida Aina, and I live in Maryland. I am originally from Togo and Benin, West Africa. I moved to the United States of America in August 2007. My main goal when moving here is to continue my education, embrace new opportunities and become successful. Before I moved here, I had completed two years in college in accounting and business administration. I earned an Associate of Arts in Business Administration from Montgomery College in Rockville, MD in May 2013. After that, I took a break because I was not sure what career path to take. Then I became very interested in technology. My passion drove me to UMUC, where I began pursuing my Bachelor’s degree in 2016, majoring in Information Systems Management and minoring in Business Administration. This is my last semester at UMUC, and I will be graduating in May. It has been a long journey. There were many challenges because I am a single mother and work full-time. I currently work for a bank in the Home Lending Asset Management department, and I have worked in banking for almost 7 years.

I am so humbled and proud to be part of the Dean’s list each semester since I have started UMUC. My GPA is 3.93 out of 4. I believe that being a member of the Tau Chapter of Alpha Sigma Lambda within UMUC is one of my greatest achievements. After my degree, I would like to get the Network+ and Security+ certifications. I have many future plans with my IT degree. One of them is to form a non-profit organization to provide basic technology classes to children in my original country (Togo, West Africa). Before I do that, I am looking for a job where I can start my IT career.