In the summer of 2022, James Randall ’24 and the Jesuit High School Sacramento’s robotics team triumphed over colleges and universities from around the world in the Marine Advanced Technology Education International Underwater Robotics Competition, held in Long Beach, California. The team had been preparing for the competition for a year and all that work was worth it for James. 

“When we won, more than anything else I was relieved and gratified,” James said. “The best feeling in the world is when your work pays off, and I think this victory was proof of that.”

Since the win in 2022, James’s role on the robotics team has only grown. He was named the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the team at the start of the 2023-24 season after the team won the same competition again in 2023. He has embraced the role, and draws from his own experience to ensure the team’s success. 

“The most important thing that I’ve learned is that it’s always important to invest a lot of time in new members,” James said. “Even when I’m not going to be on the team [next year], I need to make sure that the things that I do can be replicated by the people who come after me.”

On the robotics team, James gets to work alongside his friend Alex Bertran ’24. And while they have worked on the robotics team together for three years, Alex’s initial impression of James hasn’t changed at all.

“He’s absurdly passionate,” Alex said. “Every time you can get him going on anything and he’ll talk a million miles an hour and he knows a lot about the subject, so he’ll just go off. That was my first impression of him, it was impressive how passionate he was about everything and how smart he was. That first impression hasn’t changed. I think that he’s still just as passionate and just as motivated.”

That passion is displayed in everything that James does. He made a similar impression on his calculus teacher Ms. Kimberly Pell.

“I like that he seems really into ideas and learning,” Ms. Pell said. “He’s not really afraid to show that. A lot of times [people] may feel like they have to appear detached about learning, but he’s definitely really passionate about learning.”

As he prepares for college, James is figuring out what he wants to focus on in his studies. Luckily, he has a wide range of interests to choose from.

“In terms of college, I know I want to do electrical engineering, but I also really want to do some sort of humanities major, probably English right now,” James said. “That might turn into philosophy. I have a billion interests that I want to study in college, and I have to figure out which ones I want to go with.” 

While James has a variety of interests, those closest to him know that he has one true passion: learning. It’s this passion that will carry him far in life. 

“There was something [James] told me once: that if he could be in school forever and take every single major, he would, because he loves to learn,” Alex said. “I don’t hope that he does that, it’s a lot, but I hope that to an extent he gets to continue learning throughout his life and he gets to expand his knowledge and he gets to work in engineering and humanities, liberal arts. He’s going to have a very bright future.”