*Disclaimer: 42Fifty staff writers Katelyn Clemons, Madison Gilio, Max Mathew, and Torian Duncombe are also on the OH Reflector Staff but had no inclusion in the creation of this article.
Every year, the Yearbook Journalism 1-2 classes work to put together a carefully curated illustration of the OH student body. This past week, the team earned First Place from the American Scholastic Press Association for last year’s yearbook, “Shine Bright!” With yesterday’s Club Photo Day and other big deadlines fast approaching, the class is working harder than ever.
“[The year] might start out a little slow,” said Reflector Staff Advisor and English teacher Ewa Tulak, “[but] second semester is really the crunch time because we have to finish the book by the end of March, so it is constant movement.”
The design process begins while new students are still getting the hang of learning how to create a yearbook. At the beginning of the year, they start the process via a majority vote on a theme– which is way more than just a color palette.
“It’s more than just [doing] a sixties theme or a futuristic theme. The theme has to carry out some kind of story that goes with the year,” said junior Reflector Design Editor Liam Piekarczyk.
The theme is not the only daunting task facing the yearbook staff when beginning their journey each year. There are other important aspects like photographs, spreads, and interviews that have to be put together to have the pages that make up the book.
“It can be very daunting starting a new spread because it’s completely blank… I never read all the writing until I had to do it and figure out interviews,” said senior Madalyn Pope, one of the Reflector Section Editors, “It was very anxiety-building to get an interview with someone, so learning how to do that– it helped my confidence so much.”
For a book that is meant to highlight the different kinds of involvement available to the whole student body, its purpose is not lost on the team that creates it. In fact, it helps many staff members connect more with their community.
“[I enjoy] getting to know more about the school and not just being with my group of friends. I get to see how other sports are doing, [how] other classes are doing, and just more about the school,” said senior Addison Richter, Copying and Caption Editor.
This year, rather than only one class, OH now has two different Yearbook Journalism class periods to accommodate newfound interest. This change has led to an essential level of online collaboration so that the team can still work together to meet their goals.
“We have a group chat on Gmail, but the only times that we’ve really ever seen each other were the people that went on the Philadelphia Student Journalism Trip and just any other occasions that would have both periods intertwined like club photo day, et cetra,” said Piekarczyk.
Despite the physical divide between the team, they still find ways to connect and persevere through this new development, including taking time to appreciate each other and the work that they do daily.
“Me and two or three other girls are in charge of having our little celebrations… I think that’s a really fun part because we get to relax, be away from the yearbook, and try to just be thankful for everyone there and just see that we’re all stressed out together…we’re just gonna have a moment to have fun,” said Richter.
From learning how the process works at the beginning of the year all the way through distribution day, the yearbook team works non-stop in order to make the yearbook the best they can, but sometimes that effort goes unnoticed.
“It’s a lot harder than people think especially because it is all online…it takes a long, long time, and then the fact that every single page needs to get approved by the Editors-in-Chief and then Mr. [Brian] Cooney…it’s very, very time consuming,” said Pope.
“I’ve had some people kind of laugh at it,” said Piekarczyk, “they don’t really get it cause they’re not really part of an aspect like this, so I don’t think that they would really understand how special something like this is.”
Creating the OH yearbook is an insanely time-consuming endeavor, and yet a whole team of students team up to take the project one each year. Although each staff member’s reason for joining the team is different, there is one thing that they all have in common: their desire to make an end product that reflects their hard work and the best memories OH students have to offer.
“It’s amazing to see their progress, and I just want people to make sure they are proud of it,” said Tulak.
I am a senior at OH and so excited to be a Managing and Opinions Section Editor this year! I love working on 42Fifty, but I am also very involved in band and numerous honor societies here. Looking forward to doing great work this year!
