Todd Dmytryshyn credits St. Clair County Community College for getting his career flowing in the right direction. The SC4 alumnus is an engineering manager at Moulton Niguel Water District in Laguna Hills, Calif.
Dmytryshyn, 35, of Irvine, Calif., grew up in Marysville and graduated from Port Huron High School in 2002. He graduated summa cum laude from SC4 in 2005 with an Associate of Arts and Associate of Science in pre-engineering.
“Looking back on my time at SC4, my experiences there had a profound impact on putting me on the road to where I am today,” Dmytryshyn said. “Not only did I end up on a path toward engineering as a result of my coursework at SC4, my extracurricular experiences there helped shape my ultimate career trajectory.
While at SC4, Dmytryshyn was involved in the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, the Environmental Concerns Organization club and student government as president.
“Through those experiences, I developed a strong interest in the environment – in particular water issues – and public service. Now, as a civil engineer in the water industry, working at a public agency, I think it’s fair to say that SC4 put me solidly on the road to where I am today.”
Dmytryshyn decided to attend SC4 toward the end of his high school senior year but was unsure what potential career paths interested him.
“I felt that SC4 would provide an opportunity for me to experience a variety of educational courses and give me a better sense of direction going into a university,” he said.
“It turned out learning the science of the world around me and being able to understand why things work the way they do was something that really appealed to me,” he continued. “I have a fondness for film and television production, but math and science was my calling. During my time at SC4, I learned that engineering provided me the opportunity to combine my artistic and scientific interests.”
Dmytryshyn then enrolled in an engineering program at the University of Michigan, graduating summa cum laude in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering.
After college, Dmytryshyn worked as a project engineer at Malcolm Pirnie Inc., now Aracadis U.S., in Irvine, Calif., as a consulting project engineer for public sector clients on a variety of water infrastructure projects.
Among those was a 600 million-gallon-per-day ultraviolet water treatment facility – the largest facility of its type west of the Mississippi River and second largest in the U.S. – for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Another included a 50 million-gallon-per-day seawater desalination facility – the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere – located in Carlsbad, Calif., serving about 400,000 people in San Diego County.
Dmytryshyn transitioned to Moulton Niguel Water District in 2014 and presently oversees a $500+ million, 10-year capital improvement program related to the replacement and construction of new drinking water, recycled water and wastewater infrastructure, serving about 170,000 customers in six cities in southern Orange County.
He added his local community college gave him a chance to get his feet wet.
“SC4 provided me with the opportunity to ‘test the waters’ before setting out in a particular direction with my education,” Dmytryshyn said. “In my case, I ended up on a different path when I left SC4 than I was on when I started. SC4 also provided smaller class sizes than some universities, allowing me to have more direct interaction with the teaching staff where I was able ask questions that helped guide me on my educational path.”
