From student worker to staff member, Enterprise Technology celebrates its May 2026 graduates

An ultimate lifelong learner, Maldonado enrolled at ASU in 2002 as a first-generation college student. She then earned a bachelor’s degree followed by two master’s degrees as she worked in various positions at the university. Juggling her roles as a process architect, graduate student, wife and mother of a 15-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son, she maintained a 4.08 GPA while earning a Master of Science in information systems management from the W. P. Carey School of Business. In honor of her accomplishment, she received the Dean Medalist Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. 

As a process architect, she designs, maps and optimizes the structural flow of business operations at Technology Shared Services, acting as a high-level planner who translates university strategy into efficient, repeatable workflows. 

She said she pursued a master’s degree in information systems management to learn to think like a chief information officer and become more strategic in how she defines and designs processes. “It's given me a new mindset, a new lens of seeing the work that I do,” she said. “And I've also found a new passion in technology governance, which is the architecture of people, processes and policy, and how it all works together.”

With her new master’s degree under her belt, she aspires to play a greater leadership role at Enterprise Technology and serve as a mentor to junior colleagues.

As Riola walks across the transom to receive his diploma for earning an MBA from the W. P. Carey School of Business, it’s the ultimate payoff for two years of dedication and hard work.

By day, he manages payroll and personal services budgeting for all Enterprise Technology roles, tracking vacant positions and available funds for new hires and other department needs.

“What feels most rewarding to me about this job is knowing I’m supporting students, even if it’s in the background,” he said. “I make sure that we have personnel so that our campus infrastructure stays up and running. Inside Enterprise Technology, I make sure that we have the money where it needs to be so that we can hire the personnel we need so that everyone can feel supported.”

At the end of each workday, he quickly switched gears to complete coursework for his MBA program. “Right around 6 or 6:30 I clocked into schoolwork until 10 or 11, when I was ready to go to bed. My whole Saturday was dedicated to schoolwork, along with a couple of hours on Sunday.”

Looking in the rearview mirror, he said, “My schedule was quite crazy.” But today, he is reaping the rewards. “The biggest reason I wanted to pursue my MBA is because I wanted to understand different aspects of business, whether it’s marketing, supply chain, operations or human resources so I could one day work my way into the executive team at Enterprise Technology.”

“I realized that if you want to move up in your career and become an executive, you have to be a lifelong learner,” he added. “You really can't stop learning. There are always new techniques, new skills and new technologies you need to learn about.

Earning a master’s degree in computer science from the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering while working at the Cloud Innovation Center are certainly impressive resume credentials for Pathak. Beyond the credentials, the experience transformed the brave young woman who left her homeland in India to arrive alone in a foreign country to pursue her dream of expanding her knowledge of computer science and artificial intelligence.   

“It was a big gamble,” she said. “But I am proud of the journey that I've had, the sacrifices that I made and the things I achieved.”

“I'm extremely grateful to the people that I work with at the Cloud Innovation Center who gave me the opportunity to showcase skills I didn’t even think I had,” said Pathak, who came from a background in quality assurance and software development. “I never thought that I could design things and understand the psychology behind what goes into a good user experience. But I did it.”

She said her role allowed her to not only explore her skills, but herself. “I once was a severely introverted kid. But now I can talk to 200 or 300 people at a conference, showing features or products that I had built by myself.”

With her brand-new skills and self-confidence, she is entering the job market to land a position in UI/UX design, UX development and front-end engineering in the corporate sector. “I feel like I can face anything at this moment,” she said.