EL PASO, TX–
It was in high school, perhaps even as far back as middle school, that Lorenzo Arredondo developed a profound interest in public service. It was then that something special started. After high school, politics would become something he aspired to do but it started with just the feeling of what could be. In middle school Arredondo had been chosen to be his classroom representative to the Terrace Hills Student Council. While the council never did much other than meet together for no reason whatsoever, the reporting back to his classroom of these “meetings” gave Lorenzo a sense of empowerment. “I really felt that these students, my friends, were counting on me to represent them at the council. Sure, there was more discussion than action in the council; I mean, we were middle schoolers for goodness sake. What really affected me profoundly was that responsibilty I had–of representing people and I was proud to have done it,” said Arredondo.

For Arredondo high school played an even larger role at forming his wish to eventually run for a political office. Arredondo was part of the first class of the El Paso Health Magnet High School, a brand-new high school that was placed on the Jefferson High School campus in south El Paso. The school’s magnet designation meant that the school would focus on and prepare the students for the health care profession. As such, the courses would be more difficult than at other high schools so that students would be prepared to enter a college or university right out of high school.

The school was so new in fact that as Lorenzo and the other incoming freshman arrived in the fall of 1993 there was no permanent magnet building yet! The school’s name had yet to be chosen too! The lack of a magnet facility the first year led the Jefferson High administration to invite the magnet administration to hold their classes in classrooms on the Jefferson campus.

With this, The High School Years began.