Salutatorian James Magee gets ready to take off for the great white north

By his own admission, Niwot class of 2021 salutatorian James Magee doesn't have the best sense of time management, but he managed to overcome that shortcoming in high school with a good mindset toward his work, his classes, and his school experience in general. The Courier caught up with him on graduation eve to talk about his time as a Cougar and what the next four years have in store as he heads to the University of British Columbia to study math or computer science.

LHVC: Obviously, you've maintained super high grades throughout your time at Niwot. Do you have any particular tips or tricks? How do you balance your time?

JM: I think I'm probably not the best time management person. I think one thing that helps is trying to have a good mindset. And either have a good mindset about the classes you're taking or take classes that you'll enjoy. And you'll enjoy homework for those classes and enjoy the lessons in class.

LHVC: What have been your favorite classes or who are your favorite teachers at Niwot?

JM: "Honestly, I don't think I've had any teachers that I disliked, really. I really liked economics with Mr. Benson, and physics with Mr. Rice. And Mr. Rasmussen, who's a new teacher this year, I really liked his chemistry class. Those are some of the ones that stand out. I also took statistics and calculus this year, and I also really like those classes.

LHVC: Are there any classes that you would like a do-over in, or you just want to take it again, because you enjoyed the subject so much?

JM: Probably my French class with Mr. Beauvineau. I don't think I'm quite literate in French totally, so I want to keep working on that in college and beyond. But that's definitely a class I'd go back and do again.

LHVC: Can you pinpoint a favorite memory of Niwot? When you're talking to your own kids about your high school experience, what will stand out to you from your four years as a Cougar?

JM: I think it might have been, my last day in calculus class, we had a scavenger hunt. And it was really fun. And we were running all over the school to find these hands that are like little riddles. Some of them were math problems, and then we'd have to figure that out and then run to this other place in the school. That was a lot of fun."

LHVC: What was it like navigating your senior year with remote learning and then hybrid in-person and then back to remote, and then back to in-person? What were some of the biggest challenges?

JM: I think online school is hard. It's hard to stay motivated and to get things done. But I think the biggest struggle is probably going back to time management, actually. It seemed like I should have a lot of time in the day to get things done, but the day went by quickly. But also for some people, being social is difficult in that situation. I've heard that having people to talk to and being social is really important for mental health and for doing well academically. I was able to communicate with people virtually, which I'm really grateful for, but for people who aren't able to do that, that would be a huge struggle.

LHVC: What are your plans for after graduation?

JM: Right now I'm planning on going to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. It has a college of sciences, so I'll start there, but you apply to majors in your second and third years.

LHVC: Do you have any idea which majors that you might be interested in?

JM: Not totally. I'm thinking something maybe like math or computer science

LHVC: What drew you to the University of British Columbia?

JM: Well, a couple of things. I have some family there, which is one part of it. But also, a lot of schools outside the US and in Canada, do a co-op program, where you go to school for five years, and you can work for some of the terms. And anyway, I thought I really liked the sound of that.

LHVC: Do you see graduate work in your future? Or what would you like to do after college?

JM: Part of me likes the idea that, although I don't think I've studied deep enough in any one field to know that I really want to do that. I've done a decent bit of programming through the Up-A-Creek robotics team, and through all I have done at the Innovation Center. And so that might take me to a graduate degree. The idea sounds nice.

LHVC: So what do you want to do for a career?

JM: Part of me wants to become a computer programmer, but also, I think there's a lot of ways that you can use programming in a non-traditional engineer role. And so I'm hopeful one thing I can do at UBC is take some of the classes and see if there's a niche area where technology could be applied.

LHVC: So what do you like to do when you're not in class? Or what clubs or activities were you involved in?

JM: Robotics is probably one of the biggest things for me, but also, early in my school career, I started taking classes at the Innovation Center... That role sort of turned into an app development job that I'm working on right now. And outside of that, there's robotics. I didn't play sports throughout high school, but I did join the boys tennis team in my junior year. That was actually so much fun.