Cheydon Agos, a junior in the Academy of Health and Sciences, will represent Waipahu High School at the International Science and Engineering Fair and travel to Costa Rica through a travel scholarship in the coming months. 

International Science and Engineering Fair 

Along with Waipahu High School senior Juliana Ragmat, Agos will compete in Regeneron ISEF 2023, the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition, from May 14-19 in Dallas, Texas.

Agos’ project, “Investigating the Impact of Pyruvate Kinase Muscle Isoform (PKM2) Knockout on Cardiac Murine Hypertrophy,” made it into the top three in districts, getting an automatic place in ISEF.

Agos hopes to grow as a student and as a person and experience ISEF as his first international competition. 

Bertie Green Travel Award

Agos will also be traveling to Costa Rica with 17 other high school juniors from across the country through the Spanish Honor Society Bertie Green Travel Scholarship. 

The Bertie Green Travel Award is only offered to Spanish Honor Society members, and allows winners to travel to a country or region of the Spanish-speaking world. Agos is the first Waipahu High School student to apply for and win this award. On July 11, he and 17 other students from across the country will depart for San Jose, Costa Rica. 

Agos is looking forward to representing “who I am, and where I come from.” He wants to challenge other people’s ideas of what living in Hawaii is truly like, moving away from the stereotypes of grass skirts and Waikiki while learning about his travel companions’ lives. 

Agos says, “I’m actually interested in becoming an educator. So I love being able to teach and influence lives through the lens of an educator.” Costa Rica has one of the best education systems in Latin America. Agos hopes to use this opportunity to create a connection between our school and theirs, and take back inspiration to apply to our school.