SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER -- Traore came to America in 2000 on a Fulbright scholarship to “learn new English teaching techniques to take back home,” he said. He had grown up in the Ivory Coast, and developed a long-lasting love for the English language, graduating with a degree in English literature and linguistics and then getting his teacher’s credentials to teach English as a foreign language. Traore taught in a high school for many years before coming to San Francisco.
While at San Francisco State University, Traore began volunteering, confronting issues of African immigrants that no one else was addressing. “I’m most blessed to have my immigrant experience,” Traore said, adding how “concern for the community,” motivated him to volunteer, but it also helped him thread together a connection to people and cultures from other countries in Africa, whom he would not have gotten to know otherwise.