Dimitri Andruha is M-A’s first school resource officer, an official assigned to a school to serve as a law enforcer and mediator. He has been an SRO for four years and previously patrolled the town of Atherton as a police officer for five. Prior to policing, Andruha explored a variety of careers, including construction, stockbroking, and teaching.
Andruha grew up in a family of Russian immigrants in San Francisco. He enjoyed engineering and construction growing up. “I built my first car, a 1965 Mustang, when I was 14 years old and later owned an auto fabrication shop, where I built cars and did construction for years. I still pursue it now for fun by building hotrods and homes,” Andruha said.
He earned his undergraduate degree in business administration at the University of San Francisco with a focus on hospitality management and his master’s in Catholic education. As a college student, Andruha pursued many careers, including construction, stockbroking, and wrestling coaching, to pay for his education. “Like how I constantly change my cars, my passions are also constantly changing,” Andruha said.
Andruha felt his time as a stockbroker wasn’t fulfilling and wanted a career change. “I remember coming home to tell my parents of my career change and thinking that they’d feel very disappointed. Luckily, they understood my feelings immediately and even pitched that I was going to be a teacher someday,” Andruha said.
Shortly after, Andruha became a math teacher, a profession he continued for 15 years. Andruha worked at Parkway Heights Middle School in South San Francisco for three years and then at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, where he became the Math Department chair.
Given his success in teaching math, the switch to becoming a police officer was sudden for Andruha. “I loved teaching, and I’m definitely going back to it in the future, but right now I just need a little more excitement in my life. I figured that as I’m still young, becoming an SRO officer was the way to go,” he said.
After attending the Police Academy and becoming an officer, Andruha started patrolling in San Leandro, which exposed him to the danger of criminal activity. “I came home one day to see my wife, the mother of my children, crying and worried about whether or not I would come home. Her reaction prompted my decision to switch departments and become an SRO,” he said.
Initially worried that the career shift from teaching to policing would be difficult, Andruha instead found similarities between the two. “Being a police officer also has a lot of educational components to it. My job is never to get a kid in trouble, but to educate them on what to do and not to do in relation to the law and their safety,” he said.
“M-A is way more diverse than any other school that I’ve been to, and I wanted to be a teacher here for the longest time,” Andruha said. “I hope to send my two daughters here someday—that is how much I respect this school and enjoy being on campus.”
