Elizabeth Rotschedl, 26, an environmental scientist at the San Diego-based global consulting firm Tetra Tech, says her professors and opportunities provided at Santiago Canyon College gave her the confidence to forge a path to a meaningful career.
“I attribute a significant portion of my success to SCC and to the faculty and staff who invested in me early on,” she said. “The foundation they built — both academically and professionally — has carried through every stage of my career.
Born in Fullerton and raised in Irvine, Rotschedl initially considered going into police work or the Navy, then settled on medicine. She and her mother lived across the street from SCC, so it was an easy decision to enroll, and it turned out to be a life-changing choice.
“It’s such an amazing support system at that college,” Rotschedl said. “They care about you, and they want to see you succeed.”
In her first year at SCC she joined the HOPE Club, which stands for health occupations, pathways and education, and immediately made friends. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and no one wanted to run for student government, she ran unopposed and soon became president of ASI, as well as student trustee of the Rancho Santiago Community College district, which represents both Santiago Canyon College and Santa Ana College.
“Being a part of the student government and a part of the HOPE Club my first year was so much fun,” Rotschedl said. “But my love for Santiago really developed in my second and third years there.”
As a student trustee, new opportunities opened up that broadened her world view. She attended a National Association of Community College Trustees conference in Washington, D.C., where she met First Lady Jill Biden and Nancy Pelosi’s chief of staff, Terri McCullough. “It was an incredible experience,” Rotschedl said.
Though she intended to continue her pursuit of medicine, a close encounter with a summer wildfire changed that goal.
“I lived across from the SCC, and the canyon nearby the school was on fire,” she said. “The sky was red; there was no sunlight. It was just black smoke and red sky. At that point, I had been pre-med. And I thought, those plants and animals did absolutely nothing to contribute to what’s currently going on, and somebody should work to mitigate those effects and protect the plants and animals. And that’s when I switched to environmental science.”
SCC offers many classes in environmental science, and she dove into these studies, and names biology professors Michael Taylor and Bob Allen, and the leadership of Pamela Ralston, president at the time, for mentoring her.
Rotschedl graduated from SCC with a 4.0 honors GPA and three associates degrees and was ready to transfer to San Diego State University when another opportunity presented itself. Lou Correa, the U.S. Representative for the 46th congressional district, invited her to work in his Washington, D.C., office as a legislative intern on Capitol Hill that summer.
She jumped at the chance, though she’d never lived away from home. “It was hard and very stressful. But you can’t shy away from a challenge; you just have to take it head on and see where it leads you,” she said.
The experience was worth the effort — she was thrilled to work on science policy in Correa’s office, get a library card at the Library of Congress and meet people from NASA that summer. “I can never describe how grateful I am, how incredible it was for one thing to lead to another, giving me all these opportunities,” she said.
She went on to finish at San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and international economics. As part of the study abroad program, she studied at Iceland School of Energy in Reykjavík, where she attained a credential in renewable energy, innovation and sustainability. “Iceland is incredible,” Rotschedl said. “I think everybody should go to Iceland.”
In 2024, Rotschedl was hired as an intern at Tetra Tech, an environmental consulting firm with private and government clients, and became a full employee in 2025, working in geophysics, energy, industrial hygienics and biology.
“My advice to any young person pursuing a STEM career is get out there and volunteer and get hands-on skill sets,” she said. “When you’re trying to become a scientist, companies want to see that you have hands-on experience in the field. It also helps people develop teamwork and leadership experience and establish early credibility,” Rotschedl said.
“My other advice is to say yes to every opportunity, provided that you have the bandwidth,” she said. “That’s how I got where I am. I said yes to everything.”