SHS honors students’ academic achievements
Sandpoint High School honored 42 honor cord recipients at its academic achievement night Wednesday.
The school has two co-valedictorians this year, Camille Neuder and Katelyn Bokowy. Senior Connor Bird is this year’s salutatorian.
For Bokowy and Neuder, their academic journey started together in the sixth grade, when both attended Washington Elementary.
Neuder, who will attend the Colorado School of Mines, said she wants to work in renewable energy to make it as affordable, efficient and accessible as possible. Her work alongside Bokowy is part of what helped her get to the point she’s at academically, she said.
“I credit her to help me aspire to some of the academic goals I have,” Neuder said.
At Washington, Neuder remembers being honored alongside Bokowy when both had straight A’s at the end of the year.
The two have helped each other understand problems throughout their academic careers, Bokowy said, and helped each other stay motivated with a bit of competition.
She, Neuder and Bird all work together in chemistry, she said, and both challenge and help each other.
“I think my favorite parts about school were finally understanding the hardest parts [to a problem],” she said. “We always wanted to explain it to the person, kind of a competition … but also help each other. I think really just that collaboration [is what I liked].”
While not everyone expects students who are high-achieving in academics to be as active in other school activities, Neuder said, her hard work in classes opened other doors for her by helping her grow.
Students and teachers in choir, theater and track all became a sort of extended family to her, she said.
One habit she picked up from the track team was taking time to appreciate beautiful moments. When the team is together and the view is pretty, someone will shout, “we live here.”
“[Then] the rest of us will yell “we live here,” and it’s great to just appreciate where you are,” she said. “And I’ve started doing it whenever I feel I’m in a beautiful moment.”
Bird, who will attend Rice University in the fall, plans to major in civil and environmental engineering. He hadn’t originally planned to try and make one of the top academic achievements when he got to high school, but was trying to take as many high-level classes as he could.
“The end of sophomore year, that’s when I realized this is an option that I could have,” he said.
He also hadn’t known for sure that he would be salutatorian, he said, so when he was informed by principal David Miles, he was “happy, but also in a little bit of shock.”
What he appreciates most, Bird said, is the friends he made — many of which are in his upper-level classes.
One of his favorite memories from high school was creating a rap music video as extra credit for his poetry class, he said.
“That was one of the most fun experiences of my whole high school career,” he said.
For students that are trying to meet high academic goals, Bokowy said one of the most important things is to be thoughtful about scheduling time for studying — and don’t be unprepared for the valedictorian speech.
“If they’re striving to be a valedictorian, listen to the valedictorian speeches that were given before,” she said with a laugh.
Bird said even though school can be a lot of work, students should try to not get too overwhelmed, and take things one step at a time.
It’s also important to know that even high-achieving students struggle, Neuder said. There’s a misconception that things come easy to her, but that isn’t always the case.
“I struggle a lot with reading, that’s something I’ve always struggled with. So sometimes things take more time,” she said. “I think the reason people succeed is the ability to ask for help and support from people at Sandpoint High School.”
Full list of students receiving honor cords:
Jake D. Aitken, Marcus Anderson, Darren J. Bailey, Molly J. Balison, Taylor J. Beauchene, Chase B. Berkey, Connor R. Bird, Katelyn Bokowy,Nikolai V. Braedt, Jordan A. Cassidy, Faith A. Clark, Ellen C. Clark, Kerrancy R. Deprez, Kayla M. Flint, Jaycee L. Forell, Gabrielle F. Hicks, Joshua R. Jessen, Annaby R. Kanning, Christopher P. Koch, Hattie M. R. Larson, Jett B. Lucas, Olivia J.E. Lynch, Chloe F. Martin, Annaka E. McClelland, Glacier M. Meador, Katherine J. Mellander, Tara L. Murray, Peter K. Nelson, Camille A. Neuder, Rachel A. Peck, Parker J. Prior, Blake T. Puckett, Dillon R. Rawlings, Taylor C. Sadewic, Stephanie J. Sfeir, Kaitlyn S. Stewart, Maxwell H. Thielbahr, Matthew R. Waggoner, Wyatt A. L. P. Waud, Benjamin L. Wikoff, Sabrina S. Wilson, Kaya P. Wright.
