Walking into Louisville, Kentucky, Jordan Labio (12) stands in shock at the scene around him, filled to the brim with others with robots similar to his and his team’s. Starting from stacking legos upon legos on top of another to adding motors to lego vehicles, Jordan found his love for robotics and entered the VEX World Championships in his robotics team’s rookie year.

Jordan began his journey with robotics in the simplicity he discovered in legos. Originally receiving a basic train set, he found joy in building a realistic vehicle from a box of separated pieces of legos.  Motivated to delve further in the realm of robotics, Jordan made a team with two of his friends in middle school. Since then, he has grown closer with both of them while participating with VEX robotics, a competition oriented program where groups compete with their independently created robots. After years of working as a team, Jordan reflects upon the growth and efficiency that they have had as a team.

“I really learned how to work as a team,” Jordan said. “For instance, now our team has learned to be pretty good at dividing work, and we’re really efficient. So one person works on one component, or the site, and another person could be practicing driving.”

Whether in robotics or in school, Jordan shows a genuine interest in talking to others. He finds a way to speak with the people around him and collaborate with them on activities. Jordan always takes time to talk to Ted Ujifusa, the corporate receptionist and boys varsity water polo coach, who is always at the front desk of the Main building or watching one of the many sports games that happen throughout the school.

“He has great people skills and to be honest, sometimes that’s all you need,” Ujifusa said. “I mean, he is smart, so he’s able to parlay that intelligence along with people skills.”

Within robotics, Jordan has grown with the community regarding his involvement and progressed over time in regards to his competitive abilities. He now collaborates with and helps others who are in the same position he was when he first started participating in VEX. 

“I’ve been doing robotics for such a long time now that I’ve built a community within it. First, I was a competitor in middle school and then I was a competitor in high school. Now I’ve sort of graduated from that and now I’m a mentor to middle school teams that were just like me back then.”

Whether with strangers that he meets through robotics or his friends and teammates, Jordan utilizes his communication skills that he developed through his years in robotics with kindness and conviction. Close friend and teammate Zachary Blue (12) appreciates how Jordan is able to lead him in driving their robot throughout their many competitions together. 

“We’re basically the Drive team with the robot,” Zachary said. “It’s always exciting, I’m always next to him when we’re driving the robot and he’s just calling to me what to do: go here, go there, put that here, and he’s just a great teammate to have.” 

Jordan’s abilities in communication extend past those of his age group. Instead, when he gained enough experience in competitions, he continued to guide those younger than him in the intricacies of robotics. He wishes that these kids can see how the work that they build in robotics impacts the world and how it can help them add to the community around them.

“I would say what I do is worth it because it really changes how these kids see the world. It’s a whole other world that opens up the STEM fields. The fact that they can go through the same realization that I went through; that you can take control of your own life and build things that sort of do your own bidding,” he said. “It’s really cool that we can have the power to build things to make the world better. To build things and make our own community better. I feel that’s what I’m giving to these kids, not only awards from the competition, but even more important is that these skills will be helpful in the real world.”

Because of the absence of younger kids at the competitions, Jordan hopes to bring more under the wing of robotics and show them the intricacies of the field. Not only is he able to gain new knowledge every step of the way, he is also able to leave behind his legacy by helping and teaching those that rise a step behind him.

“The thing I’ve always wanted to do most was just help other people and I think the reason I started mentoring was that I saw in the world’s competitions that there weren’t many young kids there,” he said. “By mentoring them, I can use my technical knowledge and personal skills that I’ve learned over the years and use it for a positive cause. Now that these kids will have access to STEM activities such as robotics and are able to use it.” 

Jordan’s kind disposition and loving attitude always brings warm energy to a situation, especially in dark moments for his friends. Close friend Kyle Leung (12) comments on Jordan’s ability to lighten up the room even without an attempt.

“As a friend, he really helps to lighten the mood,” Kyle said. “There have been times where I haven’t been feeling too good and he’ll cheer me up, not even intentionally sometimes, but he’s always there to kind of lighten the mood.”