Peyton Zaletsky, Editor-in-Chief
@peytonzcourant
On Thursday June 9, students will finally have the opportunity to take home the book that contains all of their favorite memories and experiences from the school year. All because of th dedicated yearbook staff that has been working on the yearbook since last school year, students will be ale to look back and reflect on their time in high school for the rest of their lives.
“It’s fun to receive the hard copy of a book that you’ve only ever seen online and to see people carrying it around and looking through it,” Junior Amira Massoud said. “It’s like being an author, publishing a book, and watching a ton of people read it together.”
Eight students, including Amira, are producing the 438 page book that has been purchased by hundreds of students. Given the small size of the class and the large size of the yearbook, being on the yearbook staff is a big challenge, but also a very rewarding experience. “With such a small class, it’s a really big task to put together a 438 page book, and the days leading up to our deadline are most definitely crunch time,” Senior Editor-in-Chief Lauren Mellas said. “However, nothing is as satisfying as getting the yearbook and seeing your work come to life.”
When joining the class, students should come in with a creative mind and be ready to communicate with all types of people. “It is helpful to have good communication skills and interviewing skills because we interview many sports teams to get a deeper understanding of what their season was like so that we can accurately depict it in each writeup,” Amira said. “It’s additionally helpful if you’re creative as this plays a big role in formulating the theme for the yearbook–the more creative the staff is, the better the theme is portrayed.”
However, students do not need to have much background knowledge on working with computer software programs because they will learn the necessary skills that are used to produce the yearbook. “You don’t need to come in with any skills,” Lauren said. “Other kids in the class, Mr. Zambarano, or Regina (our yearbook representative) can help anyone become a Photoshop and InDesign genius.”
While most regular classes are led by one authority figure, the students in the yearbook class take on positions that hand the leading and decision making power over to them. Within these roles, the yearbook staff splits up the workload equally in order to be efficient, however the Editor-in-Chief is given more leadership responsibilities. “As a member of the yearbook staff, you will be assigned pages and have to decide which pictures go where, and you are responsible for interviewing people for captions and a writeup,” Lauren said. “As an Editor-in-Chief, I am in charge of making the layouts, assigning pages, and working on my own pages.”
Before the school year ends, the staff begins working on the yearbook for the next school year. This starts with deciding on a theme that they will base the book around. “We begin brainstorming theme ideas during the spring of the preceding year and we finalize it in the fall of the next year,” Mr. Zambarano said. “We discuss current events in and around the school as well as current visual trends in magazines and other publications, and as a class we debate ideas and how these themes would work with each of the sections.”
Once the theme is established, the yearbook staff gets started on the creating process. “Right away, we sign onto Yearbook Avenue and get working on pages,” Junior Morgan O’Regan said. “In class, there is always something to work on until the book is completely finished: we work on editing, interviewing, looking through photos of events, and making pages.”
It is very common for the staff to run into challenges when doing interviews or working on the layouts, however they always find a way to solve any problem they encounter. “During sports seasons, contacting athletes for interviews can be a challenge,” Morgan said. “Meeting deadlines is also always a crunch, but we always do.”
Despite the massive amount of work that goes into creating the yearbook, the class is a very fun environment. “The class atmosphere is very light and fun which makes it easier to make the yearbook without a sense of pressure even though there are deadlines,” Morgan said. “Mr. Zambarano provides snacks for us and he makes it more fun to work on the book together.”
Every year, because of the diligent work and dedication of the yearbook staff, students are able to leave for summer break with a book full of their achievements, funny moments, and favorite memories from their high school careers. “The yearbook unites a lot of people in the few moments they spend looking at it together, and it’s cool to know that you helped bring those people together,” Amira said. “It’s also pleasing to know that you created that book of memories that someone may pick up in forty years when reminiscing about high school, spotting their old crushes and pointing their photos out to their future children.”
