Oral History Interview with Heriverto Trejo-Laredo, Winner of the 2024 Dr. Gates Math and Physics Award for Jones High School

I think my greatest achievement probably within my whole like public education career was probably going into the International Baccalaureate Program. It was really hard, but it became one of my greatest feats, I believe. Like I said, it propelled me to strive for a better future, for a better success honestly. I really couldn’t ask for anything better. All of my teachers were completely understanding. They helped me through and through. And, I think, that really threw me forward basically. And I really appreciate everyone that was there for me. I think my public education career went as smooth as it could have gone. Excerpt from an Oral History Interview with Heriverto Trejo-Laredo, Winner of the 2024 Dr. Gates Math and Physics Award.

Heriverto is a 2024 graduate of Jones High School and aspires to be a mechanical engineer at Lockheed Martin in Orlando. He will be attending the University of Florida this year. As a student at Jones High School, he completed the International Baccalaureate Programme, participated in the Science Club, Financial Literacy Club, National Honor Society and the Calculus Project. 

Mrs. Nicole Blackmon is the Jones High School 2024 Teacher of the Year and International Baccalaureate MYP and DP Coordinator, IB Theory of Knowledge Teacher. Mrs. Nicole Blackmon is a Florida native who grew up on the Space Coast. Mrs. Blackmon is a Lead Educator for the IB. She trains teachers and evaluates IB schools across the world. Currently, Mrs. Blackmon is the President of the Florida League of IB Schools.

Dr. Gates established the Dr. Sylvester J. Gates, Jr. (JHS ‘69) Math & Physics Award at Jones High to reward a male and female student each year for exemplary math and physics projects. The award is $1000 each, payable to the students to be used at their discretion. It is not a scholarship. The award is to incentivize more JHS students to pursue STEM careers. Dr. Gates is member of the National Academy of Sciences and recipient of the National Medal of Science. Gates holds the Clark Leadership Chair in Science and a joint appointment in the Department of Physics and the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He is also a Distinguished University Professor and a University System of Maryland Regents Professor. Gates is well-known for his seminal work in supersymmetry, supergravity and string theory. He has made milestone discoveries in the mathematics of particle theory and the geometry of gravity. In addition to his research achievements, Gates also distinguishes himself as a powerful advocate for education and an ambassador for science around the world.

Listen as Orlando native Heriverto Trejo-Laredo talks about his educational experiences growing up in the City Beautiful.

My name is Heriverto Trejo-Laredo and I was born here in Orlando. My parents are full on Mexican. They were born in Mexico and they came here for a better future for themselves and a better future for me.

So you’re an Orlando native?

Yes. I am.

You mentioned your parents, so your parents live here in Orlando now, is that right?

Yes.

And what do they do for a living?

My mother works at a restaurant. She’s a cook at the restaurant. And my dad is, I believe, he’s a scaffolding worker so he works construction.

So two parents contributing to our community. And do you eat really well at home?

I do.

So we’re here at Jones High School, would you tell us about your education? Did you go to public school all your life?

Growing up in the Orlando area, yes, I’ve gone to public schools. I attended Catalina Elementary right in this same area. Following I went to Memorial Middle School. And then I ended up here at the great Jones High School, finally graduated. It feels amazing! It feels like an honor for my family. I’m the only person that graduated high school completely. And it feels good because there’s sort of like a feeling that I can really boost my family to a greater success more than they’ve anticipated.

And have you already had the official graduation ceremony or is that upcoming?

Yes, we had our graduation on the 28th of May.

And your parents were able to attend?

Yes, both and some extra guests as well.

So that’s a beautiful moment.

Yes, it really was. I was happy to see them there and I am more than likely sure they were thrilled to be there as well.

Tell us a little bit, have you had your experiences in your public educational career at this point that you especially remember? It could be like you solved a math problem and your like, wow!

I think my greatest achievement probably within my whole like public education career was probably going into the International Baccalaureate Program. It was really hard, but it became one of my greatest feats, I believe. Like I said, it propelled me to strive for a better future, for a better success honestly. I really couldn’t ask for anything better. All of my teachers were completely understanding. They helped me through and through. And, I think, that really threw me forward basically. And I really appreciate everyone that was there for me. I think my public education career went as smooth as it could have gone.

That’s fantastic.

Would you tell us a little bit about some of the courses or subjects or topics that you studied in that program?

Beginning in high school I started off, well, back in middle school I started high school classes. So I was in advanced classes before. Going in to high school, ninth and tenth grade, we started diving deeper into more college topics. Eleventh and twelfth grade year, we went a lot deeper into the IB program. We were diploma program candidates meaning we were doing some of the most rigorous classes that the high school could offer. And when I say it was hard, it was really hard. It was difficult to stay on track with everything. Extracurriculars were hard enough on top of the school work that we got. But in the end, it all worked out. You know, as much as I like math, it was really hard. Physics was, it was a topic all right. It was pretty hard, but at the end of the day it got done.

And it got done at a very high level.

It did. It came at the cost of a little bit of sanity. But honestly, I’m proud of what I’ve done, I don’t regret anything. I don’t regret going into the IB program. I have no more words to say about my achievements so far. And I feel like the completion of the IB program could be very beneficial to me going in to my college career.

Yes. This is more of a thoughtful question especially because your parents come from another country, the education that you’ve received so far, that’s at a high level and intensive, has your worldview changed at this point, from the time of beginning the program to now or do you expect that may happen as you enter more into your college?

Starting the program we covered a lot about real world topics. It delved deep into like global problems, global issues that some students don’t involve themselves in. And the education that I received, I really do think deep about it. Because if I were to be born in the home country of my parents, there would be a difference of how I look at the world. It’s just, it’s a different world over there in Mexico. I visited it once. It’s a very different world. Education isn’t free most of the time. And it pains me because knowledge is a very powerful thing to have. I believe that it should be free for anyone really. And really, that’s some of the topics that we covered in our program is that different countries have different things. And it’s sad to see that a lot of countries don’t do the same thing as us. And, it kind of like pushes me to be better for others. I want to be a good person for my family and for my friends and for anyone else that needs that help.

Excellent.

I understand you also have academic activities, you said extracurricular activities. Are you involved in things outside, were you involved in club activities or work? Do you want to tell us about that?

Science Club

I like sciences, so when club rush, we call it our club rush. It’s where a lot of clubs come out and they announce their presence in the school. So when our club rush season came out, I went to the Science Club booth and I registered. Since then I’ve been very active. I’ve been very active I’d say because I go to a lot of their meetings. Their meetings are held every Monday. We hosted a lot of things on our campus like Steam Day.

UCF Laser Optics and Fire Station Beekeeping

And then we had, we went to UCF for laser optics. We did a lot of engaging things. We went to Fire Stations around the Orlando community and helped out with beekeeping. And honestly, that was really fun. I wish I was in science club in my earlier years of high school. But, it was a really fun time. Science Club is, it brought out something in me. I liked sciences before but now I kind of miss it. But it was really fun.

Second Harvest Food Bank Community Service

I also went to a lot of community services like Second Harvest Food Bank on Mercy Drive. It was one of my first sort of like eye openings for me. Seeing many people in need, needing to have food for them. And I was one of the people that helped out with catering and distributions of foods. And seeing so many cars lined up outside of the facility, it made me realize that global hunger is a really prominent thing in our society. It’s a harsh thing to realize. Doing those community service hours, I feel like I’m really proud of because I feel like I was helping out first hand. I was trying my best to make the situation about hunger in our community a little bit better for everyone.

Publix

One last thing is I work at Publix and it’s a fun little job I think. It’s sometimes stressful. I work in one of the busiest stores here in Orlando. I work in the produce department. It’s a little, it’s a hassle I will say having to greet customers, help them out, on top of doing things in the back of our department. But it’s a day to day thing that I strive for. I go to work and I try my absolute best as much as I can even though I may be suffering, well not suffering, but going through day to day things.

And it’s so important to have fresh fruits and vegetables isn’t it? There’s a science part to that as well.

Absolutely, yes. The good thing about Publix, which is why I like the company so much is that they are really engaged with the community a lot. They host a lot of community service opportunities. And some of the fruit and veggies that we put out on the sales floor, sometimes they may not look up to par, to our standards. So we donate those fruits and vegetables to maybe some food donors or something like that. So that’s also one of the big things, why I like Publix so much. Working for a company that actually cares for their community and their environment, it’s kind of like an accomplishment maybe; having to help out in another way shape or form.

So tell us how you first got started in physics? Was it a core course that you had to take or was it, hey, I might like to try that? How did it come about?

The Calculus Project

The summer going in to eleventh grade, I did a summer thing called the Calculus Project. I went with another friend of mine. And originally it’s about math, but the teacher who was conducting The Calculus Project, she was actually our future teacher for the Physics class going into eleventh grade. So we also, even though it was a math course or math subject, we delve into physics topics. It was around a month spanning from the beginning to the end of June. So within that time we squeezed in math and a little bit about physics so I did like it at first. That was kind of like the easier things of physics. Going into twelfth grade year it’s starting to get a lot more rigorous, but my love for physics didn’t quite fall off.

Do you still feel it?

The spark is there but it still needs some ignition I think. Going into my college year that’s where I think it will really crack down.

So tell us I understand you have a project, you did your physics research exploring how the ratio of water affects the viscosity of a non-Newtonian fluid like maple syrup? Would you tell us about that for everyday people?

I would like to clarify this first. If you don’t like pancakes or waffles with syrup, I think that’s a little bit strange. Because pancakes and waffles themselves are good, but they need some sort of like little sweetness to it. So I eat pancakes, I eat waffles with syrup. So I was doing research about different types of maple syrup. So water really does affect maple syrup a lot. It can change how sweet it tastes. It can change how thick it is. And I wanted to try and see kind of like how fast each of those maple syrups flow. So depending on how much water I put in the base maple syrup, I measured how fast or how slow it goes through a viscometer, is what they call it. It’s a device for measuring how fast a fluid goes through a little tiny hole. It was a fun little experiment. And it involved my personal engagement with it, you know eating pancakes and what not. I think it was a little funny. But, it actually did end up becoming a – it was a successful experiment, I think. Yeah, it was a successful experiment I will say. I did learn a lot about how the water ratio effects maple syrups, viscosity.

So did the school provide the viscometer?

Yes, they did.

So you didn’t have to buy it.

We had that readily available. Every supply that I used for the project was readily available in our physics class which is a good thing. I didn’t really have to go out of my way to purchase anything.

Then you also did a math research project for a different class. And your math research, talking about world problems earlier you mentioned earlier, was exploring minimum wage and the correlation of inflation. So would you tell us about that, please?

My main idea for this project was sort of like recognizing a problem in our society in today’s world. The minimum wage for the nation. When I first started working at Publix, that’s when I really had my first step into the real world. Having to sort of like realize how much I get paid and how much of that pay can go toward everyday things. Especially now since inflation is so high right now, we have a lot of events occuring which of course raise our inflation rates and I wanted to see what the minimum wage would have to be in order to match the inflation rates of today’s world.

Minimum Wage for Florida

I compared three states around Florida, well, including Florida. It was Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. I was comparing those three states and their minimum wages and then adjusting those minimum wages to inflation, if I remember correctly. Florida in the year 2023, Florida had the highest minimum wage sitting at $12.50 if I remember correctly. And then, Alabama and Georgia both had $7.50, I think. So straight off the bat, Florida had the highest minimum wage. So my conclusion was, oh, Florida has the highest minimum wage already. But just by having the highest minimum wage doesn’t really mean that it’s a better state to live in.

Cost of Living

Because cost of living is still a thing that you have to worry about. You know, gas, there’s house rates or renting rates, and just everyday shopping, maybe. So at the very end of my experiment, I think I concluded that for Florida, the minimum wage has to be around $21.00 an hour to sort of like fit the average cost of living. And then adjusting that for inflation, Florida’s minimum wage has to be around $21.00. And I can’t really remember Georgia and Alabama’s adjusted wages but they were around that same, I think Georgia and Alabama were around $18.00 an hour to fit the cost of living in those respective states. So it really brings a thought to me, because, you know, we’re stepping out into the real world now. We’ve graduated. We have to realize what we’re getting ourselves into. What we’re going to do. What jobs we’re going to get into to make living possible really.

Thank you for explaining all that so articulately. Was this a written project that you turned in or was it a presentation that you gave to your class or did you work with other people?

We call these internal assessments, our IAs. So these are essays handwritten by the students and they are supposed to be individual. So no collaboration whatsoever. These essays are handwritten and we turn them in to the teacher. These essays can consist of around 2,000 words plus. We had around six in total. So, yes, we can collaborate with other students, we can only collaborate with them for ideas, not to directly work together that will be an infringement with our IB policies and what nat. So a lot of these essays were built brick by brick from our thoughts.

100 Percent Freedom of Creativity

But the really good thing about these essays were that we had 100 percent freedom of creativity. You know we could really write about anything, which is really a good thing about this program. It gives you the subject, you just have to come up with a topic which can be hard for some. A lot of the problems with our students, with my classmates, was motivation. Keeping up with these essays on top of more work that we’re getting put on top of by our teachers and then extracurriculars. It became sort of like a battle for balance almost. But we graduated at least so we’ve been there done that. Like I said, it’s something that I don’t regret. I’m really glad I went through that.

And it’s a real world topic.

Yeah, that’s a lot of what our essays have to dive into, real world problems. Our English class especially, talks a lot about global issues. Our essays for English, was all about coming up with a global issue pertaining to the text that we’re writing about which is good.

Excellent.

I understand that you’re thinking of pursuing electrical engineering as a career. Is that still true?

It was mechanical engineering. My dad and my uncle and then my other uncle, they do sort of like mechanic stuff, working with cars and whatnot. When I was younger I used to like pull up to the car and be like, hey what’s that? It really, it was kind of like a catalyst for my inspiration to pursue mechanical engineering. Especially the math courses and the physics courses right now. Which is sort of like the main reason why I chose it. So going into our eleventh year we had to choose the sciences we could choose from, it was either biology, chemistry or physics. Originally I was going to choose biology, but our IB Director she suggested physics because that fits in the major that I want to go into. So she was also one of my biggest inspirations as well to kind of like pursue physics in mechanical engineering. Overall, I think my family, my dad, and my two uncles they were one of the biggest inspirations. And I thank them for that. They helped me realize what I’m going to be in this world.

So many congratulations!

Thank you.

You’re welcome.

I understand you plan on attending University of Florida.

Yes.

How did you happen to choose your school?

We had a little like college area within our Theory of Knowledge Class, and one of our units was like choosing what college we wanted to go to and seeing which college is the best option for us. I was looking mainly at schools that were really good in their engineering departments mostly. I had a lot of contenders. There was the Florida Institute of Technology. I heard UCF’s Engineering Department was blowing up [becoming popular very quickly] this year. And then, there was Georgia Tech, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University. And then, my sort of like unreachable dream school, MIT, Massachusetts [Institute of Technology].

University of Florida Engineering Department

But, University of Florida kind of like spoke to me almost. Although it was number one within the state, that really didn’t appeal to me. What appealed to me was that their Engineering Department was the most funded in Florida. So really, there are many, many opportunities at the University of Florida that I think I can really benefit from. So I think that’s the main reason why I chose it.

Congratulations, that is a top school, doing top research, and top work! That is great!

Thank you.

You’re welcome.

I know this is a little ahead of the game, but as we look to the future, is there a future project or company or organization on your horizon that you think, wow, at some point I think I might like to do that?

During our Science Club meetings we had a little field trip to Lockheed Martin. It’s a company that designs and manufactures global defense systems. We went to the site… there’s two sites: there’s an aviation and logistics site, and there’s a missile and fire control. We went to the Aviation Center. And there we got to learn a lot about what they do at that site… I have yet to visit the Mission and Fire Control and I don’t think they allow visitations. But they use a lot of mechanical engineering there and my eyes just sparkled. And they offer really great benefits. They offer internships there. And right on that same day I was like I might want to do an internship here. We talked to the manager of the site and she was like, “It’s quite a competitive company to go for, but with the right qualifications and the right work ethics, you’re more than likely to get hired.” So, right now I think that’s the company I’m striving for. It involves everything that I love, mechanical engineering and building things. I think that’s the goal I want to achieve right now. Going into Lockheed Martin, great company. I would definitely do many great things in the future.

They have a long legacy in our community for being good corporate citizens in our community which fits with your values that you’ve expressed… and you have a contact now.

Funny thing is my manager at Publix has a contact as well in Lockheed Martin. So I have a lot of connections already, I think, which is a really good thing. It boosts my chances of getting into the company early. I don’t know, it’s a really great thing.

Yes, and that’s what we want, what the community wants as well. I think Lockheed Martin wants to recruit the best, the best in our community, the best in our country. I think that’s why they have those internships to be able to get that.

Absolutely.

We actually have a lot of interviews on Orlando Memory with people who worked at Lockheed Martin.

Oh, wow. They got a lot of people. They got engineers. They get physicists. Anything that’s involving STEM, they do all of that.

And Dr. Jim Gates who your receiving the award from, his father worked at Lockheed Martin.

There’s a lot of Lockheed Martin connections.

May I ask, because you are an Orlando native – it’s really great to interview someone who is an Orlando native; we interview people from all different backgrounds because we are an international city which is fantastic – but what do you enjoy most about living here?

What I think I enjoy is probably kind of like the family. Basically thinking of our community like a family. A big family of sorts. And I like that. I like having that support within our city. I feel like if need be, we can always receive that help through our community which is why I like it so much. Another thing, it’s a really beautiful city, I’ll say that. Just to have a little pass by, you know the very tourist populated areas, even though they’re ransacked by tourists, it’s still a pretty sight no matter what. I think Orlando is one of the most sought out cities which is really good, but nonetheless, Orlando is kind of like those families that are really good to have.

I love your answer. It’s beautiful. It represents Orlando really well, too.

Thank you.

Thank you so very much for speaking with us today. Many congratulations to you on receiving the Dr. Gates Math and Physics Award for 2024. We look forward to hearing more about your accomplishments in the future and we wish you the very best!

Thank you guys for hosting me today.

Interview: Heriverto Trejo-Laredo

Interviewer:  Jane Tracy

Date: June 6, 2024

Place: Jones High School in Orlando, Florida.