Yearbooks are ingrained in school culture all over the world, whether buying it for the memories, to have friends sign it and everything and in between.
Many students never think twice about the heavy workload that goes into designing a yearbook but behind every spread and page is a dedicated team of students who work countless hours during and after school to deliver the best product they can.
“I feel like one of the most misunderstood things about yearbook is that it’s an easy class,” yearbook Editor-in-Chief Katarina Topping said. “We have three deadlines every month, just to get one page in, and most of the time, you will have to put in work outside of class.”
While designing is heavy work, printing the yearbook is not cheap. Along with designing pages, the entire team has to work to produce the proper funding.
“As business manager, I am required to manage ad sales for the book,” sophomore Molly Keller said. “It’s how we afford things like shirts, celebrations and the media team banquet.”
Before designing the book and marketing can begin, the team has to brainstorm for the concepts, theme and pages of the yearbook, which usually occurs before school even starts.
“It’s a long process,” veteran staffer Kody Staggs said. “You have to talk to the whole team to decide what you’re going to do with your book.”
The team behind the yearbook is not only talented in designing but also passionate about creating the best possible book for the campus.
“When I first joined yearbook in middle school, it was the only class open,” Topping said. “After that, I fell in love with it so much that I decided to keep going with it through high school. I’ve just been enjoying it, and it’s so fun to capture memories of kids laughing, being in projects and enjoying their life.”
A yearbook is full of funny, embarrassing and academic moments from a year. They are a legacy of some of the most influential and memorable years of a student’s life.
“I think a yearbook is extremely important to have on a campus,” Keller said. “Not only is it a fun thing to look back on that year, it’s a keepsake that people keep for decades to show to their kids.”
