With friends at the Hollywood Sign
By now Enkh-Uchral “Eddie” Enkhbayar is used to people wondering if he grew up in a ger (the Mongolian version of a yurt) and rode to school on horseback. No, he patiently explains, when asked about his
homeland. Eddie grew up in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital. A modern metropolis of 1.5 million inhabitants, it is urban
to a fault—plagued by smog and snarled with vehicles. “It’s so crowded, I would say
the traffic is worse than LA,” Eddie says.
In fact, that’s what brought him to SMC in the first place. Eddie came here in 2019
to study engineering, with the goal of helping to fix Ulaanbataar’s serious infrastructure
problems, which in turn have triggered a national health crisis. Pollution-related
respiratory disease is rampant. Eddie’s own grandmother has been hospitalized twice
with asthma.
It seems counterintuitive, given that Mongolia is the world’s most sparsely populated country. Nearly four times the size of California, it has just 3.3 million inhabitants. Ulaanbaatar, however, is home to roughly half
that population—and growing fast as unemployment drives Mongolia’s once-nomadic people
to the capital city. Many of the new arrivals live in gers without electricity.
“Automobiles and industry cause some of Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution,” Eddie says,
“but the biggest factor is people burning raw coal for heating. We don’t have good
infrastructure, and we don't have enough resources to power all the homes.”
Eddie’s long-term goal is to drive sustainable energy innovation in his homeland.
His proposed solution: “I think we could utilize resources like wind and solar. Mongolia
is really windy in the winter and really sunny and hot in the summer.”
Unfortunately, he laments, “there aren’t enough engineers to show the way.” Eddie
is personally addressing that problem. In fall 2021, he transferred to UCLA from SMC. He’s currently a junior majoring in electrical engineering, holding down
a 3.97 GPA.
*
Eddie has known he wanted to be an engineer since his freshman year at Mongolia’s
best STEM high school.
You wouldn’t know it to see his smiling face, but he had to overcome devastating loss
and grief to get this far. When Eddie was 10, a family trip to Bulgan, a town 200 miles east of Ulaanbaatar, ended in tragedy. An automobile accident took
both his parents’ lives. Eddie and his two sisters spent months in the hospital recovering
from their injuries. Luckily they had a large extended family. The orphaned children
went to live with their grandparents: one set on weekdays, the other set on weekends.
Many aunts, uncles, and cousins welcomed them in loving and supportive homes.
In fact, Eddie currently lives with one of his aunts, not far from Koreatown. A financial analyst at Cedars-Sinai, Enkhtsetseg Myagmar helped Eddie polish his English and softened the homesickness international students usually experience upon arriving
in Los Angeles. His adjustment to campus life was remarkably smooth. Eddie signed
up with the STEM program and joined two honors societies: Alpha Gamma Sigma and Phi Theta Kappa. When the COVID crisis disrupted on-ground learning, he volunteered with the International Education Center, which led to a paid position as a peer mentor. His entire time at SMC, Eddie also
worked as a Supplementary Instruction (SI) leader in calculus and chemistry.
“Eddie is awesome,” says Muriel Walker Waugh, the SMC professor who recruited him as her SI leader for Introduction to Chemistry. “He is smart, kind, gentle, and yet strong and organized. I remember students telling
me after class: ‘I’m going to see Eddie. He will help me work it out.’ That’s what
I wanted to hear!”
Eddie is grateful to Muriel because SI gave him the push he needed to overcome his
fear of public speaking. From shaking voice and trembling hands, he progressed to
the poised calm that now gives him the confidence to actively participate in class
discussions and enjoy presenting his projects.
Even so, adapting to UCLA wasn’t easy: The 10-week quarter system threw Eddie for
a loop. “It flew by so fast,” he says. “Once we got close to mid-terms, I slept only
five or six hours a night. I had no free time.”
Now in his third quarter, Eddie still works hard: he’s carrying 21 units, mostly upper-division
courses like electromagnetics, physics, and probability and statistics, plus a GE
in visual culture.
Yet he manages to carve out some free time and make new friends. Between classes,
Eddie likes to shoot hoops at a nearby South Campus court. To unwind, he listens to pop music and enjoys going to concerts (his favorite
artist is The Weeknd). Since turning 21 last December, he can get into nightclubs to hear new bands. He
also enjoys experimenting with world cuisines: Indian, Mexican and Cuban restaurants are among his favorites.
The multicultural vibe is what Eddie likes most about Los Angeles—and what he expected
least.
“When I first arrived, the diversity really shocked me,” he says. “In Mongolia, there
are almost no foreigners. You only ever see Mongolians. In the SMC international student
community, everyone comes from different countries.”
Though he hasn’t been back home in three years, Eddie stays connected with his sisters,
grandparents, and relatives via video chat. A few family members have visited him
in Los Angeles.
“Interestingly, I know no one from Mongolia here, really, except my family,” he says.
In addition to his aunt, he has three cousins living in California, and a fourth in
New York. They keep Eddie connected with his roots and strengthen his resolve to dedicate
his life to modernizing Mongolia’s power infrastructure.
“I want to provide each and every family, regardless of whether they live in a house
or a yurt, with a solar energy system, while reducing air pollution so everyone is
breathing cleaner air,” Eddie wrote in a statement of purpose essay for his UCLA transfer
application.
With Eddie on track to graduate from UCLA in 2023, Ulaanbaatar stands to gain a much-needed
engineer with world-class training in sustainable energy systems. He plans to stay
in California a bit longer—perhaps go on for a master’s degree and get some hands-on
experience working in the green sector.
His SMC mentor is watching with high expectations.
“I have no doubt,” Muriel says, “that Eddie will be able to make his homeland better.
He will strategically utilize his knowledge to make the world a better place.”
* * *
SMC in Focus Volume VIII, Issue 2
So Much Drama
As Juilliard graduate Anthony Richardson makes his Off-Broadway directorial debut, he reflects on the many ways Santa Monica College ignited his bright future. Read Article
Can Mongolia Go Green?
SMC to UCLA transfer Enkh-Uchral “Eddie” Enkhbayar came all the way from Ulaanbaatar to study engineering and help fix his home city’s serious infrastructure problems. Read Article
Born This Way
SMC student Ashley Lopez is challenging perceptions about software engineers and hackers — and what it means to be LGBTQ+. Read Article
Journalistic Journey
SMC Professor and Emmy Award-winning journalist Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins helps students sharpen their newsgathering skills while championing freedom of the press. Read Article
Bragging Rights
SMC’s literary journal has two Pushcart Prize mentions. An Emeritus professor sells her debut novel to an imprint of Penguin Random House. A dance instructor creates meaningful choreography. Read Article
A Place to Belong
Brought to the U.S. for medical care at an early age, Maria Hernandez is studying at Santa Monica College to become a nurse and help others. Read Article