Ronald “Scott” Boyd, Cuyamaca College; Water and Wastewater Technology

Ronald Scott Boyd only managed to complete one year of classes in the water and wastewater technology program at Cuyamaca before he found the perfect job.

Boyd worked in construction for most of his life, but found himself bored in retirement. He applied to be a greeter at WalMart and also at Costco. He wasn’t hired so he registered for classes in 2010.

“I talked to Don Jones,” Boyd said. “He is real passionate about this and it rubs off on everyone who takes his classes.”

Boyd had not been inside a classroom for 37 years and said it was difficult, but Jones and others urged him to keep going. He soon found himself on the Dean’s List. Then last summer, he was hired as a water treatment operator and mechanic at the U.S Army Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona.

“I would recommend it to anybody to go back,” Boyd said. “I was the oldest one in every class. Kids would ask me, ‘What are you doing here?’ I’d tell them I’m doing the same thing you are doing. I wanted to go, wanted to do it. I actually made something out of it and it made something out of me.”

“I do owe it to all the teachers there,” he added. “I commend every teacher I had. Everybody was real helpful from the counselors all the way down to the bookstore.”