Mrs. James

Student Reporter Becca Matias

During her time in high school, Susan (McCollum) James was an active member of many clubs and activities including band, jazz band, National Honor Society, Yearbook and the Sunshine Girls. On top of these activities, she was also the class secretary and Salutatorian. Upon graduation in 1979 James left Monrovia to attend Purdue University. Little did she know that she would return as a teacher to her old high school and remain there until her retirement from teaching.

  Initially, James attended the School of Consumer and Family Sciences at Purdue before changing her major to Secondary English Education with a minor in Journalism. Immediately after her graduation from Purdue in 1983, James began teaching at Knox High School in the fall of the same year. After only a year at Knox, James began to teach Junior English at Monrovia high school in 1984, soon after marrying her husband Tim James.

  Since then James has taught mainly Junior English at Monrovia. With the introduction of accelerated curriculum classes, she began Sophomore Honors English as well. In the 1990’s AP English began, and for the remainder of her career, James taught a combination of these three classes. James’s retirement this year brings her thirty-two-year career at Monrovia to an end. Her tenure has influenced and inspired countless students.