Lake City valedictorian following in big sister's footsteps

Two sisters followed their own paths to find themselves at the same point at different times.

Elisa James, 20, graduated from Lake City High School in 2017. She was the valedictorian, with a grade point average of 4.5.

Catherine James, 17, is graduating from LCHS in June. She is the valedictorian, with a GPA of — you guessed it — 4.5.

“She was valedictorian, and that really inspired me to try for valedictorian, too,” Catherine said Tuesday. “I don’t think I ever would have gone down that path if it wouldn't have been for her.”

When Elisa heard the news that Catherine would also graduate top of her class, “I was not surprised in the slightest," she said.

“I was excited and proud of her,” Elisa said. “She’d worked so, so hard for it. To know she was the valedictorian was an exciting and proud moment for me.”

Catherine was a freshman when Elisa graduated. She’ll always remember watching as her big sis spoke to the 2017 graduating class, guiding her peers into their futures with words of wisdom.

“That’s definitely one of the proudest days of my life, to see her up on the stage giving the speech,” Catherine said.

The sisters have always prioritized academics, with Elisa leaning more into math and Catherine having a penchant for language and creative subjects.

Both young ladies have excelled in advanced learning placement (ALP) classes, which helped heap on the grade points.

“For both of us, it was just taking as many of the ALP classes as we could,” Elisa said.

As kids, they studied together and did their homework in the same space. Catherine said one trick that helped them in their studies was recording themselves speaking when working on memorization and playing that recording before going to sleep.

“You play it before bed and you wake up and it’s in your mind,” she said.

As Catherine looked up to Elisa and always aspired to meet the academic bar her sister set, she said Elisa taught her to find passion in what she does.

“When she was trying for valedictorian, that was constantly on her mind and she was passionate about being there,” Catherine said. “Now she’s very passionate about what she does.”

Elisa said she has so many wonderful memories with her only sibling, but she really remembers the two of them becoming close when their family traveled to South America for a few months when she was 10. They didn’t speak Spanish, so they could only really talk with their parents and each other.

“We were spending every single minute together,” Elisa said.

That bond only strengthened as they grew up. They drove to school together during Elisa’s senior year when Catherine was a freshman. They wanted to be sure to spend time together before Elisa went away to college.

Elisa is now in her third year majoring in industrial engineering at the University of Southern California. She’s finishing the year at home in Coeur d’Alene because of the pandemic.

She interned at her dad's company, J-U-B Engineers, the past three summers, and is hoping to acquire a job in either consulting or social entrepreneurship. In high school, she was on the varsity tennis team and was very involved in DECA and debate.

Catherine’s college choices are the University of South Carolina, Western Washington University and Santa Clara University. She plans to major in biology, attend medical school at the University of Washington and become a trauma surgeon. She served as a Kootenai Health teen volunteer the past three summers.

At school, she has served as the president of the National Honor Society, the debate captain freshman through junior year, she was a DECA participant and national competition qualifier two consecutive years and, like her big sis, she played tennis.

The legacy of not one but two high-achieving valedictorians in their family is something relatives, including their aunt, Teri Runge, will always look back on with pride.

"I couldn’t be prouder of my nieces," Runge said. "They have worked hard, achieved great things and have extremely bright futures. They truly are amazing young women."