With his mom as inspiration, and an ed choice scholarship leading the way, Mason is 'going places'

Lidia Fleites leaves her son with these words every morning when she drops him off at school.

“Mason, focus.”

“Mason, do good.”

And Mason Fernandez, a freshman at Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami, hops out of the car and does just that.

Mason, 15, has been an academic star since first grade, the year he first received a Florida education choice scholarship, managed by Step Up For Students.

The scholarship helped Lidia afford the tuition at Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Hialeah, where Mason was a member of the national junior honor society and the spelling bee champ in eighth grade. At Pace, he is a member of the prestigious Sword and Shield Honors Program and a recipient of the Spartan Scholarship based on his scores on the school’s entrance exam.

“I would like to share my gratitude, especially towards the leaders who funded all of my son’s years of education, because it granted him so many opportunities,” Lidia said. “I am a very proud mother, and I personally thank Step Up and wish that every kid could take advantage of this program and all that it offers.

“Mason is taking advantage of it, and he’s going places.”

If all goes according to Mason’s plan, those places will be an Ivy League college – Harvard University or Columbia University – where he will major in criminal science, then law school, and then a courtroom, where he will defend clients against injustices.

“I want to give a voice to those who don’t have one,” Mason said.

This has been his plan since he was in the second grade. That’s when he began watching “Suits,” a legal crime series with plenty of courtroom drama.

Mason got a jump on high school last summer when he took a physical education class. Completing that elective will enable him, as a sophomore, to join the Academy of Law Studies, one of Pace’s nine Signature Academies that allow students to dive into their academic interests. It is one of the reasons Mason chose to attend Pace.

“I feel this will get me to where I want to be in the future,” he said.

Her son’s academic success and lofty college and career goals make Lidia proud. And that makes her double down on her encouragement.

“I’m always on him,” she said. “Kids slack off when their parents don’t push them. ‘You have to try. You have to give it your all.’ I didn't give it my all. I didn't have the chances that kids have nowadays. And look, I'm struggling, but I'm making it.”

A single mother who was born in Cuba and came to South Florida with her parents in 1980 during the Mariel Boatlift, Lidia is keenly aware of the value of an education.

A high school dropout, Lidia worked to earn her GED and now works as a medical assistant and surgical coordinator for an OBGYN.

“My parents didn’t speak English. They didn’t know what was going on at school,” Lidia said. “But education is very important in the Latin culture.”

Lidia found her way. Thanks to the Florida education choice scholarship, she can give Mason the educational opportunity that was not available to her parents.

And that’s what inspires Mason.

“The big motivation would have to be with my family in general, especially my mom in particular,” he said. “I feel like my mom has done so much for me to give me all the opportunities I can have. So that's why I try to make the most of what I can, for my family, but more importantly, my mom.”

Mason recalls many nights when his mom helped him with his homework and taught him study habits that he uses today.

“She helped me build a foundation for where I should be,” he said. “And ever since I’ve kept building on to it.”

And Lidia will be behind him, pushing and encouraging him to reach his goals.

“It’s not easy,” Lidia said. “But you wake up and you give it your all.”

Roger Mooney, manager, communications, can be reached at [email protected].