Katie Tsuyuki is a “lifer” at Rosseau Lake College. It is a title given to those students who attended RLC for their entire secondary school education. Not only was Katie a student from 1996-2001; her brother David was also a student from 1993-1996. As a family they cover almost a full decade of our 50-year school history. Today Katie and her family are still very involved with the RLC community and are major ambassadors of the school.

During Katie’s years attending Rosseau, she was one of our most prominent female athletes. She spent five years on our field hockey team, three years on the swim team, two years kayaking, and two years snowboarding. While attending RLC, Katie participated in a solo trip, two biking trips, six canoe trips and the Fernie Ski trip. Her achievements as a snowboarder in her final year allowed her to compete at the national level. Not only an athlete, Katie was also an Honour Roll student and she participated in an exchange program with Westminster School in Australia. Katie believes that both the extensive athletic program and the academic focus for success at RLC helped her perfect her time management skills.

“Being an athlete means that I have more than one job. Having more than one job means I'd better be good at time management. With more extracurricular activities offered at RLC than other schools, we were always busy and had to balance our academics with activities and be successful at both--a great skill to take into adulthood.”

When Katie graduated from RLC, one of her main goals was to “perfect the art of snowboarding.” Since that time, Katie has taken her simple goal to a whole new level. “When she saw halfpipe introduced to the Olympic Games at Nagano 1998 she thought it was something she could do.” In time, Katie became a three-time medalist at the Canadian Championships, and she recorded her best World Cup result in January 2010. She made her Olympic debut at Sochi 2014, where she missed a spot in the final by one place, finishing as the top Canadian female halfpiper in 13th place overall.

Katie attributes much of her success to the life skills she acquired as a student at RLC. “Probably the most useful tools I learned from my time at Rosseau were independence and confidence to go out on my own. I literally qualified for the Olympics as an independent, not as part of the national team. I was comfortable with the commitment needed to accomplish a feat like becoming an Olympian and it was not easy without the help of a national team. I had to be self-motivated to train, work, and learn. There was no clear pathway for me, but I trusted in myself. The drive to get the most out of myself and hit my potential may be the most important value I have taken from Rosseau.”

“My years at Rosseau prepared me to reach for the Olympics. The small school taught me to dream big and gave me what I needed to materialize these dreams. I can say that I wouldn’t be as successful had I gone to another school. Rosseau was the best decision my parents let me make as a teenager.”