Phantom Spotlight: Teonezcayoti Gutie Ruiz

My future goals involve helping humans explore space. Being a key player in taking us to the moon, Mars, Venus, Europa, or anywhere else is where I’m trying to direct my career. Spaceflight is one of the few areas that truly has the potential to bring the world together. We see that in Apollo with the first words uttered on the Moon, in the International Space Station with Americans and Russians working together, and the Artemis mission’s continued emphasis on keeping space open to everyone. The world is often a dark place and contributing to space exploration is the way I’ve decided to help make it a bit brighter.

Do you want to share any advice for the Cathedral students? For Teo (Teonezcayotl Gutieruiz is a graduate of the Class of 2020 and will also be attending M.I.T. in the Fall)?

My advice to Cathedral students is the same advice that I was given embrace failing. Literally everything gets harder after Cathedral. Whether you plan on going to college, a trade school, the military, or something else just know that right now is the easiest that you will have it for the rest of your life. But that shouldn’t be a scary thing! If college is easy, join higher level classes. If a job is too easy, ask to be assigned more tasks. If you’re struggling and failing that means you’re growing. It’s like in video games. If you’re destroying your little brother in NBA 2k everyday you’re not going to get any better. You only get better by challenging yourself by playing more difficult opponents (or playing as a severely handicapped team like the Rockets or the Warriors). For Teo, my advice is to keep an open mind about the opportunities in front of you. There are clubs to join, classes to take, friends to make, and memories to be made so try to step outside of your comfort level and challenge yourself to make the best of the next four years.

Which of the Cathedral core values have you continued to apply?

Respect of all Persons and Inclusive Community are the two core values which I apply most actively. I’ve met people with different nationalities, sexual orientations, races, religions, political views, and everything else in-between while in college. Everyone deserves the respect that comes with being human and making sure of that is extremely important to me.

We want to thank Blake for taking the time and making himself accessible for the Phantom Spotlight. We are definitely rooting for him and all of our alumni! It is apparent that Cathedral provided a great foundation for Blake’s future success, keep striving for the stars Blake!

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Teonezcayotl GutieRuiz ‘20 · M.I.T. Class of ‘24

Teonezcayotl GutieRuiz, also known as Teo, is a member of the Class of 2020. He follows in the footsteps of his father, Martin GutieRuiz (Gutierrez), Class of 1982. Teo was a member of the Math & Science Academy and will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Thanks to Teo’s hard work and academic aptitude, he was selected from a pool of 36,000 high school seniors across the nation to receive the Gates Scholarship. This scholarship will fund the full cost of his undergraduate degree at MIT.

In a brief interview with Teo, he mentioned that he enjoyed being a student at Cathedral High School. He learned many life lessons from classmates and teachers but one lesson that will be most important in college is time management. One of the many things he is looking forward to about starting college is meeting people from different parts of the country and the world. Teo will be majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Eventually, he would like to start an organization focused on exposing children from low income communities to careers that might interest them and help them on their journey.

Teo will be attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall of 2020. He will be joining fellow Cathedral Alumni, Blake Shepherd from the Class of 2019. During his time at Cathedral, Teo demonstrated his determination to be successful and was a good classmate whose values will serve him well at MIT. Good luck Teo, you have the Phantom Community rooting for you!