Jake Kollmer and Zoe Carpenter (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Jake Kollmer and Zoe Carpenter are this year’s Saranac Lake High School valedictorian and salutatorian.

They’re both four-year, three-season athletes; both play in band; both born and raised in the district; both inspired by their parents and both got their worst grade on their transcript in earth science during the coronavirus pandemic.

They each keep full schedules, with only a couple weekends free during the school year. Otherwise, they’re packed with sports meets, rehearsals, performances and studying.

“Both of them are very involved in our school community,” SLHS Principal Josh Dann said. “They’re also good character kids.”

He said he admires their goal to be the top of their class and said their ability to do so is “all on them.”

“I’m proud of these two,” he said. “They’re smart. They’re leaders in their class.”

Kollmer’s grade point average, which accounts for his first three years of high school and the first half of the last year, is 98.5 out of 100. Carpenter’s is 98.11. These are not weighted GPAs.

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Jake Kollmer

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Kollmer, a star cross country and track athlete at the school, said, honestly, it was a bit “underwhelming” to earn the valedictorian title — putting in all that work and all he gets is a title next to his name. Still, he said, it’s nice to have achieved it.

Some subjects come easy to him — like math and science. Others require late nights.

“English and history classes were not easy for me,” Kollmer said. “Funny enough, I actually like English and history a lot more than math and science.”

He said he probably likes these subjects because they challenge him.

His dad is a history teacher and his mom is a Spanish teacher, both in the district.

Dann recalls when Kollmer was in elementary school, he asked his dad, “What does Mr. Dann do as principal? It just seems like he just walks around and says ‘Hi’ to people.”

Kollmer said his mother inspires him. She holds three master’s degrees — in technology, behavioral analysis and foreign language. But she barely finished high school. She tells him about how she turned her studies around. She went to community college, studied hard and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. Seeing how she put in work to achieve this drives him to do the same. He remembers being disappointed getting a 95 in her Spanish class and pushing himself to do better after that.

During the coronavirus pandemic, getting good grades took a lot of studying outside of class. The schools are still feeling the effects of COVID, he said, and they lost a lot of learning time. He feels the state is watering down the Regents exams.

His advice to underclass students seeking good grades is: “Don’t procrastinate, oh my gosh.”

Kollmer admits he caught a case of senioritis this year.

Usually, when he gets an assignment, he does it that same night. This year, it’s been harder to find the motivation to do that.

“The hardest part is just sitting down and starting it,” Kollmer said. “But once you get started, it’s easy. … Maybe not easy, but it’s smooth.”

After getting into that motion, he said it’s still important to take breaks when they’re needed. But he said he can never break for too long.

“I have the type of brain where, if I don’t have something to do, it’s just miserable,” he said.

Kollmer said, sometimes, as counterintuitive as it sounds, being overly stressed helps him get more done.

He has wanted to be a state forest ranger ever since eighth grade and was planning to go to North Country Community College and then Paul Smith’s College after graduating. But in February, that path changed significantly when he signed a letter of intent to run cross country and track at the University of New Hampshire, an NCAA Division I school.

He will study forestry there.

Kollmer has already been learning how to fell trees and run heavy machinery at the FEH-BOCES Adirondack Educational Center. Dann said, as far as he knows, Kollmer is the school’s first valedictorian to be part of the BOCES career and technical education program. It was bound to happen, he said. Now, 30- to 40% of students are in CTE programs.

Kollmer said he learned to love the outdoors from living in Saranac Lake. Sitting in Nori’s cafe, he gestured to the Saranac River and commented on how his hometown is a unique and beautiful place. The campus at UNH is in a small town 20 minutes from the beach and 10 minutes from the mountains.

Kollmer’s advice for people entering high school is to try to really learn — not just memorizing facts, but learning the “why” behind things.

When asked what plans he has for the rest of the school year, Kollmer said he was inclined to say “no comment” but let on that he was planning a small prank.

“It’ll be classy. Don’t worry,” he said.

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Zoe Carpenter

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For Carpenter, earning the title wasn’t a surprise — she’s been keeping track of her grades since eight grade and describes herself as “a very competitive person.”

Grades have always been important to her — not just passing, but getting 90s and above.

Carpenter is inspired by her dad. He always urges her to do the best she can and they share that competitive spirit.

She’s known her dad’s SAT math score was 760 since she was young.

“Going into my SAT prep, that was my main goal. I just wanted to beat him,” she said.

She got a 770.

But her father looked at the percentile ranking difference between when he took the SATs and now and decided that he still beat her because he was in a higher percentile — the 99th vs 98th percentile.

Getting good grades means needing to complete everything, Carpenter said. Looking at what needs to be done and then knuckling down and doing it.

Math is her favorite subject and comes to her easily. Science does not. She said AP biology was a challenge but when there’s a challenge, she just needs to commit time to get things done.

In the fall, Carpenter will attend the Mitch Daniels School of Business at Purdue to major in accounting.

“I just love numbers,” Carpenter said. “My favorite board game is ‘Monopoly’ and I’m always the banker.”

She loves budgeting and almost looks forward to having bills and income to balance.

Carpenter has done four years of Alpine ski racing, three years of track and this year she took up tennis to try something new.

“It’s a lot of Saturdays spent running,” she said.

Carpenter feels athletics helped with her studies by giving her something to do outside of studying.

“I think a lot of the sports gave me structure,” she said.

Carpenter lives in Franklin Falls — a 30-minute drive from school each way. Having an hour a day in the car gave her “A lot of time to think.”

During the pandemic, she said they learned how to teach themselves more. Teaching through a screen isn’t the same.

Carpenter studies in the BOCES New Visions Education program, learning how to teach alongside instructors in the elementary and middle school. When she sees middle schoolers learning algebra, she said she doesn’t even remember learning it the first time around.

She said it’s cool to see kids starting in Kindergarten, building the foundation of their education. In the middle school, she hears from students who are nervous about high school.

“There’s nothing to be nervous about. You’re going to be fine,” she tells them.

Both Kollmer and Carpenter will walk the stage with the Class of 2025 on June 27 at 6 p.m. at the Saranac Lake Civic Center.