Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlights the Promise of Shaping Our Future Together

By Juan Torres, National Renewable Energy Laboratory Associate Laboratory Director

I’m living the American Dream.

Every day as the Energy Systems Integration associate laboratory director at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), I am proof of that experience.

My personal journey is what Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15–Oct.15, celebrates this year: our future together. I’ve always looked toward the promise of sharing a brighter future with my fellow Americans.

In 1971 when I was four years old, my parents brought me to the United States from Mexico. Though uneducated, they wanted a better life for their family and took jobs in a canning factory in La Junta, Colorado—hard labor they embraced without complaint.

But they also had a vision. They knew that the key to success was education. At the same time, they instilled a strong work ethic and drive to succeed in me. As the eldest of four children in a new country, everything was the first for me. After enrolling in school and learning some English, I soon had lots of responsibilities as the family interpreter.

Life brought many challenges to a poor immigrant family. Where I came from, we didn’t have a lot of money, so I learned to understand how things worked out of necessity so I could fix them. If the car broke down, I’d be there with my dad to help. I developed that knack of understanding how things work.

Early on, there wasn’t much career guidance. I had no inkling of what an engineer was. But I loved drawing so I thought I would be an artist—a path that evolved over time. I also loved science.

One day, while attending La Junta High School, I opened an old physics textbook that described the various types of careers in science. I read that electrical engineers designed stereos. I thought, “I like stereos.” It seems funny now, but that was the spark making a connection. And it paid off. Around then personal computers were just coming out, too, so I felt a pull toward that field, thinking about designing these novel devices.

As a curious boy, I grew up watching “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” and wondering what could be and what the future might look like. Perhaps that was my first experience with a systems-thinking approach.

But the basics were always present: I was the first in my family to graduate from high school. That was a given. Afterward I attended several schools, eventually completing a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics engineering technology from the University of Southern Colorado (currently CSU Pueblo). Through college I worked at a store on the weekends and tutored math during the week—which made me focus even more on my goals.

During my junior year of college,?representatives from Sandia National Laboratories?visited my Southern Colorado campus.?I was impressed by Sandia’s amazing technical work and excited by its sense of purpose, but I was soon disappointed by the fact that I did not qualify for any positions because I was not a U.S. citizen. It was then that I decided to apply for citizenship.

As a 21-year-old, I proudly became an American citizen, complete with all of its precious rights. The timely action paid off. Upon graduation, I was hired by Sandia as a lab technologist. My family’s dream was becoming a reality.

But chasing a dream never ends. And I realized that to advance in my career and at Sandia, I needed a graduate degree. Back to school I went, working full time while earning a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering at the University of New Mexico. At Sandia, I was exposed to more and more aspects of engineering, including designing novel computer network control in secure environments. The knowledge I gained on this program was foundational to work I did later in cyber vulnerability assessments for utilities and other critical infrastructure owners.

My work with large military systems helped me see the bigger picture. For one thing, my systems views were coming to the fore. Because of this, I was eventually selected as the systems engineer and engineering liaison to an Air Force sponsor for design of a mobile command and control system.

But I never forgot the community that nurtured me. Despite a demanding work schedule and partnering with my wife, Michelle, in raising our two children, I found time to be actively engaged with the Hispanic Leadership Outreach Committee at Sandia. I served as the committee chair and volunteered as a computer workshop instructor for middle school students in at-risk schools and as a college bowl coach mentoring students in their professional development at the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC).

During the latter part of my 27 years at Sandia, I became familiar with NREL. That was natural because I spent about six years managing Sandia’s renewable energy programs. When I was offered a job at the premier renewable energy laboratory in 2017, I returned to Colorado. It was, as they say, a dream come true. It validated my parents’ decisions.

Since then, I’ve been engaged in all the areas I was exposed to earlier in my career—especially cybersecurity and the functions of NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility, a one-of-a-kind laboratory solving problems related to getting renewable energy onto the electrical grid.

The opportunity also enabled me to pass along lessons I’ve learned. One key is inclusive leadership. To me, that means enabling others to use their talents, experience, and skills to achieve a common goal while leveraging the strength of their differences. I know first-hand how far someone can go.

My personal philosophy is to be a servant-leader where my role is to inspire and to support my team so they can bring their best.?In my opinion, as leaders one of our responsibilities is to develop other future leaders.?Trust is key.

I have been fortunate to have had many supporters and mentors throughout my life to help me understand that. From my parents and grandmother who always encouraged me, to my wife who stood next to me through everything, to many mentors in my education and career—all contributed to my achievements.

As I said—I’m living the American Dream. And I intend to keep inspiring others, especially those in the Hispanic community, to draw upon their heritage of achievement. I look back at a four-year-old Spanish speaking boy and see a path open for so many others. That’s how we progress together to share in the American Dream. That’s how we embrace the future.