Bryan Hartanto loves LA freeways—even during rush hour. To this international student, there’s poetry in infrastructure.
“It continues to amaze me, how engineering is so interwoven in life,” says the 20-year-old from Jakarta, Indonesia.
Bryan, who graduated from SMC this month with an associate degree in general science, will transfer to UC San Diego as a civil engineering major. He’ll arrive with a résumé jam-packed with extracurricular activities, research experiences and so many overlapping campus jobs that he set an SMC student-employment record.
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Bryan grew up in a multigenerational household in the Kelapa Gading neighborhood of north Jakarta. His grandparents, mother, uncle and sister all live under one roof. Family life revolves around Glitter Indo Pratama, the construction company Bryan’s grandfather, Lianto, built from the ground up more than 50 years ago.
A passion for construction seems to run in the family.
From a tender age, Bryan would ask his mother, Yinda, for empty shoeboxes, wrap them in paper, and stack them into miniature skyscrapers, arranging whole cardboard cities on the floor.
“I didn’t have a name for it yet,” he reflects, “but civil engineering was always the path I was on.”
By age 8, Bryan was accompanying his grandfather on construction jobsites around North Jakarta. “If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be in this field,” he says.
Bryan briefly considered a career in journalism, but by high school, his path was clear. In junior year, he designed and built an earthquake simulator. For his senior capstone project at Penabur International High School, Bryan experimented with cement alternatives using a mixture of cyanoacrylate adhesive, sodium bicarbonate and graphite. (Cement manufacturing is a leading driver of climate change.) Equally engaged in campus life, Bryan organized intramural athletic competitions and contributed to his school newspaper.
Aiming for college in the United States, he applied to several University of California campuses. To his dismay, Bryan was rejected by all of them. Luckily his mother Yinda and his uncle Erik had attended SMC in the 1990s before transferring to four-year universities. They suggested he follow their path.
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Upon his arrival in 2023, Bryan—then only 17—hurled himself into campus life. Within a few weeks, he had a job proctoring placement exams. Daisha Bates Williams, who runs the proctoring lab in Admissions and Records, became his self-appointed mentor.
“She connected me with everybody on campus,” Bryan says, of his boss. “In my toughest times and my greatest times, Daisha was always there.”
From that first job, Bryan’s campus involvement grew on a bewildering scale. During the summer, he added a peer navigator role with the Student Success Teams, doing outreach to first-generation students; as the fall semester approached, he became a peer mentor with the SMC International Education Center. The following spring he started tutoring at the Science Learning Resource Center and leading Supplemental Instruction sessions in mechanics, physics and chemistry. For the past year, he’s been running social media for the STEM Program.
It was never one job at a time. Bryan enjoyed working simultaneously for two or three SMC departments. A financial aid staffer once told Bryan he holds the college record for having the largest number of active student-employment contracts.
At times Bryan was so ubiquitous that classmates wondered if he might have an identical twin.
“Students would see me at the Admissions desk. Then an hour later, I’d be upstairs at the IEC,” he recalls, smiling. “They’d say: ‘Wait, aren’t you from downstairs? How are you everywhere I go?’”
Off the clock, Bryan embraced SMC student life and governance. He rose to leadership roles with clubs in civil engineering and chemistry. He won a seat on the Associated Students board, serving as director of instructional support and representing student voices on the Academic Senate’s Curriculum Committee and SMC’s District Planning and Advisory Council.
“What makes Bryan especially compelling is his commitment to uplifting others,” says Daisha, who nominated him for the honor of being spotlighted at the 2026 commencement ceremony.
A people-person, Bryan has made lots of friends at SMC. He shows his affection every Thanksgiving, when he bakes large trays of homemade lasagna for every department and campus group that has supported him along the way. Last November, he delivered 18 lasagnas around campus, including a special kosher mushroom version for Jewish friends.
“It brings me joy,” he says, of this quirky tradition that many departments have built into their holiday party plans. “It’s my way to give thanks back.”
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Bryan has done all this while holding down a science-heavy courseload and maintaining a 3.7 GPA. He didn’t slow down academically during semester breaks. Instead, he piled on extra learning and leadership experiences.
Encouraged by senior career services advisor Joan Kang, Bryan enrolled in a NASA grant-writing summer academy. His proposal idea was among the few chosen for further development; then as principal investigator, he supervised a virtual team of 12 students to take the project to the next level.
The following spring, Bryan took part in Caltech’s Base 11 Aerospace Mentorship Program. Through that experience, he designed, engineered and optimized a custom-built miniature remote-control car to run a 100-meter racetrack.
In an immersive materials science summer program at UC Irvine, he tried his hand at preparing gold nanoparticles, conducting ligand exchanges and using silicon wafers to collect and analyze Raman spectra.
Bryan found more off-campus learning opportunities on his own. He joined the American Society of Civil Engineers—not a student chapter, but the professional organization. He gained useful networking experience while attending regular meetings and touring infrastructure projects, such as the Sixth Street Viaduct replacement in downtown Los Angeles, alongside professional engineers.
In his downtime, Bryan would drive the freeways for pleasure. To him, the onramps and offramps, the overpasses and cloverleafs, are themselves sources of engineering wonder. The freeways would frequently take Bryan to LA landmarks. He’s spent hours soaking in the grandeur and structural virtuosity of Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Getty Center and the Central Library in downtown.
Starting September, he’ll spend many hours in another iconic library—the Geisel Library at UC San Diego. Bryan can’t wait to explore every nook and cranny of the La Jolla campus he’ll soon call home.
For now, though, he’s busy helping his younger sister, Nicole, get settled in Santa Monica.
Continuing a well-established family tradition, she will begin her college journey at SMC this fall.
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SMC in Focus Volume XII, Issue 3
Believing in Herself
At Santa Monica College, Madeline Davis transformed years of self-doubt into student success, a passion for teaching—and a future she once thought impossible. Read Article
Chasing Her Interior Dreams
This first-gen Corsair racked up interior design awards, earned straight A’s and pulled all-nighters in the studio — all while commuting, working part-time jobs, and helping out with the family cleaning business. Read Article
Bearing Witness
From Navy ships to city streets, Kayjel Mairena built a journalism career at SMC focused on documenting and serving communities in need. Read Article
Writing a New Chapter
Coming to Santa Monica College for a fresh start, Jeffrey Berrios found community in his classes and confidence in writing for The Corsair. Read Article
Bragging Rights
An Art prof has a museum show. An SMC Fashion alum dresses a celebrity. The College gets a $250k grant to design equity-centered professional development. Read Article
From Shoeboxes to Skyscrapers
Jakarta native Bryan Hartanto turned his fixation on infrastructure into an extraordinary journey through SMC—collecting research projects, leadership roles and campus jobs. Headed to UC San Diego for civil engineering, Bryan is determined to keep on building. Read Article