Todd Nguyen BS ’14 (third from right) serves as chair of the WTS-LA Transportation Resume Book. At far right is 2015 Price undergraduate alumnus Fred Chang.
By Cristy Lytal
For Todd Nguyen BS ’14, taking on the role of chair of the Transportation Résumé Book at WTS-LA – the Los Angeles area chapter of Women’s Transportation Seminar – was an opportunity to combine two things he’s passionate about: promoting equality and networking.
As chair, Nguyen facilitates job and internship recruitment for students at WTS-LA, one of the largest chapters in an international organization dedicated to building the future of transportation through the advancement of women. The organization brings together students and practitioners to form a network of nearly 6,000 members, including both women and men.
The son of Vietnamese immigrants with a penchant for world travel, Nguyen credits his dedication to equality to his early experiences of multiculturalism.
“That definitely goes back to how I grew up, having this multicultural atmosphere,” said Nguyen, a Southern California native. “It may not be tied to gender equality specifically, but it is tied to providing equality to all people.”
World travel also piqued Nguyen’s interest in how people live within cities, which spurred him to major in policy, planning and development and minor in architecture at USC.
As an undergraduate at USC Price, he served as a student ambassador and volunteered at METRANS Transportation Center events. He also joined the USC Program Board, which plans and executes student events ranging from concerts to food fairs, and a Christian organization called USC Cru.
“My experience at USC Price has been invaluable,” he said. “In our design studio class, which was the capstone project, we got a real site; we got a real project. I’ve always been a real-world application kind of person, and I think that comes with my world travel experience. I really took a lot away from that.”
Professor Marlon Boarnet described Nguyen as “an excellent student during his time here at USC Price. His commitment to service was evident even then. He was a leader among his classmates, and a strong contributor inside and outside of the classroom.”
“Todd embodies the USC Price ethic of service to our communities,” added Boarnet, who chairs the Price School’s Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis.
Nguyen noted how his transportation course with Boarnet and his public policy course with Professor Raphael Bostic also gave him a strong foundational knowledge, which he now uses in his job as a Transportation Planner with Caltrans.
He started off doing short- and long-range planning, and then took on the more technical challenge of doing traffic forecasting. “In a sense, I see the future of traffic, and provide a lot of traffic data for all of our engineers as well as doing large-scale capital projects centered around multi-modalism,” he said.
Nguyen with Andrina Dominguez BS ’14 (far left) – Photo © John Livzey
His volunteer position as chair of the Transportation Résumé Book – a curated collection of student résumés distributed to potential employers – also has its roots in his undergraduate years. As a Price student, he began volunteering at WTS-LA events, then joined the committee for its Transportation Résumé Book, and quickly became chair.
“I’ve been the chair for about a year and a half so far, and it’s been great,” he said. “Essentially, my job is to connect students with both internship and full-time opportunities with all of our corporate partners. I’m an older brother, so maybe my fraternal instinct comes out a little bit. I want to help these students out, help be that first bridge between students and professionals, because I love networking.”
Serving alongside Nguyen on the WTS-LA in Transportation Resume Book committee is fellow Price graduate, Andrina Dominguez BS ’14, who shares his view on the value of WTS-LA’s professional network.
“WTS is widely respected throughout the field,” said Dominguez, who received WTS-LA’s Ava Doner Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship as a Price student, and now works as an Environmental Specialist at the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“At [WTS networking] events, for example, you could meet people within Metro as well as the different consultant organizations that Metro works with,” Dominguez added. “That’s been a really helpful process for me because I’ve been able to start making those more interpersonal relationships.”
Building interpersonal relationships is a central focus of the Transportation Résumé Book, according to Nguyen. In addition to appearing in the résumé book, participating students are invited to attend an exclusive networking mixer with the chapter’s corporate partners, who are potential employers, on April 21, hosted at LA Metro’s Union Station Gateway Plaza.
“For last year’s debut mixer, it was a very intimate group,” Nguyen said. “The venue was small, where you didn’t feel so overwhelmed. And at the same time, I was playing connector a little bit. I’d talk to a group of students, get a pulse on what they’re looking for, as well as having side conversations with all the corporate partners. And if I could find that match, I’d just bring student A to company A.”
One such student was Fred Chang, a 2015 USC Price undergraduate alumnus. Already a participant in WTS-LA’s luncheons and the WTS Transportation Academy, Chang was applying to a summer internship at Iteris, a private consulting firm specializing in transportation analytics.
“I actually met my interviewer the day before [my scheduled interview] at the résumé book event,” Chang recalled. “The next day when I actually went in for my interview, we already knew each other, and it was all very casual. I really liked how we were able to meet at WTS with all these different firms, and it was very helpful for me.”
Chang now works full-time as a transportation planner at Iteris, and volunteers for the social media team as well as a reviewer for the WTS résumé book. And these successful connections are what motivate Nguyen to continue his work helping others advance their careers.