Yearbook

In November 2020 — while schools were in the middle of the rocky transitions of online and hybrid learning — a club-based yearbook landed on my plate. At first I was a co-adviser. Then, before the school year was out, the other adviser was promoted to administration. I was advising on my own.

Learning to advise an extracurricular yearbook has felt more challenging than newspaper. One factor is the economics of it all: Yearbooks are expensive, and this escalates the need to get it right. There doesn’t feel like there is any margin for error. A misspelled name in a newspaper results in an online correction; a misspelled name in a yearbook can lead to family disappointment and a request for a refund.

Then there is the pressure. If a student misses their assignment to cover a school event for newspaper, the editors just don’t publish that story. Sometimes they need to apologize or find another way to cover that group or team; sometimes the omission just means we have a discussion about coverage. But if the yearbook staff misses a school event, then that event isn’t in the book that families have purchased in anticipation of seeing the program that matters to their student in its pages. You can’t stage an extra lacrosse game at the end of the year when the yearbook staff missed all opportunities to cover lacrosse. (We may or may not have tried this in 2022.)

Another factor is that I’ve been around the block a few times in the journalism education community. I’ve seen what Pacemaker yearbooks look like, and I’ve watched gigantic yearbook staffs jump and scream when those awards are announced.  Our scope as an after-school, once-a-week club is quite different from what a year-long yearbook class can accomplish. Learning to accept this fact while still pushing against it requires… what do the thought leaders say? A growth mindset.

Still — yearbook is an incredible and rewarding learning experience. Our student leaders are determined, responsible, and growing. Our first volume earned a CSPA silver medal. We’re starting to branch out to state and national conventions, and I love seeing the students’ eyes widen as they realize what’s possible. The long hours and frustrating emails are worth it when a student laughs joyfully at her completed spread. We are still processing the fact that yearbooks from the pandemic years will be treated as primary sources of history.

One of my first steps as a new adviser was to compile all our community resources and updates onto a website. 

Ten spreads from each book

2025

In the 2025 volume, much of our theme work was centered around a painting we commissioned by a remarkable senior artist. This was our first book to include an opening spread. The staff continued to focus on deep coverage of school events. Behind the scenes, we formalized our connection to the school newspaper, enabling students from each staff to share photos and stories. 

2024

In the 2024 volume, we focused on increasing student voice through the folio questions, and on figuring out an alternative to the tradition of senior quotes. The theme package involved using ‘bubbles’ throughout the book. Although the end result was visually appealing, If we never use a circular frame again, it will be too soon.

2023

The goal for our 2023 yearbook was to produce a chronological yearbook for the first time. The theme demanded that our staff improved in writing copy. We also aimed to improve our coverage enough so that an index made sense. A search through the archives confirmed that this book included the first-ever index at our school.

2021

No matter how much I learn about all the ways that this yearbook fell short in its technical requirements… the 2020-2021 Haven Yearbook will always make me proud. At our first-ever yearbook critique, a judge described this book as ‘skittle vomit.’ We loved it anyhow.

This book is an archive of how our school met the challenge of the pandemic. We had five different schedules in one year—and those are documented in the book. Our marching band and instrumental programs still found ways to perform. Athletes played sports in masks—until they didn’t. Because our portrait photographers were not visiting schools, we asked our students to submit selfies for the roster pages. Our yearbook staff was one of the only clubs that got to meet in person in the spring of 2021.

Note that these pages were archived individually, so the gallery does not include spreads.

Select Recognition

Pennsylvania School Press Association

2022-2024 Gold Rating