Dominique Malonga Studies Computer Science While Playing for Seattle Storm
Dominique Malonga is studying computer science at Southern New Hampshire University while playing for the Seattle Storm, adding a bachelor’s degree to a pro career that already moved fast. The 20-year-old French center said the online program should take five or six years, a timeline built around basketball, travel and recovery.
Dominique Malonga and Southern New Hampshire
Malonga signed up for the degree because she wanted college before she fully settled into life as a professional player. She said she chose computer science after she simply Googled the subject, then landed on an online format that fits her schedule with Seattle.
The setup matters because her basketball calendar has been crowded from the start. She was drafted second overall by the Storm last year, making her the youngest player in the league at the time, and she had already been playing at a high level in France before that.
She began playing with ASVEL Féminin in the Ligue Féminine de Basketball and the French national team at 16. By then, the 6-foot-6 center had already built enough of a résumé to become the youngest player ever to post a double-double and reach 100 career points.
Storm center in motion
The last year has not been a quiet one. Malonga underwent wrist surgery in October, then spent the first two months of this year in Miami competing in the Unrivaled 3-on-3 league before heading back to France for the FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament.
Two games into that tournament, she suffered a concussion. After that stretch, she said of her recovery, “It was the first time I had time for me,” a rare pause in a career that has otherwise moved from one stop to the next.
Dom’s Room in Seattle
Back in the Storm apartment complex, teammates have nicknamed the room with a piano “Dom’s Room,” and Malonga said, “I spend my life there,” over Zoom in April. She taught herself piano pieces on YouTube and uses the instrument as a reset when the calendar starts to fill up again.
“When my mind is full and I need to reset and calm myself, I just go play,” she said. That habit runs alongside the degree work and the game schedule, giving Seattle a young center who is building both a post on the floor and a path off it.
For Malonga, the practical next step is simple: keep balancing classes, basketball and recovery. The degree will take years, but the Storm already have a center whose routine extends far beyond practice and games.
