SUMMER SCHOOL ZONE: Making a book of memories

Every school has a yearbook, and if you are not a part of the yearbook staff, you might not understand how much work goes into creating one. As the editor-in-chief of Windermere High’s yearbook, which has more than 350 pages in it, I can attest that creating this memory-filled book is no easy feat. 

Our team of 11 students along with our fearless adviser, Jessica Moore, attended Yearbook Palooza, Florida’s annual yearbook convention. Schools across the state come together for three days to learn and teach the ins and outs of actually creating a successful yearbook. 

At Palooza, we attended workshops, went to the Florida Hotel’s Starbucks every day and made great progress on Windermere High’s 10th anniversary yearbook. 

First and foremost, before you get into the nitty gritty of what it means to make the yearbook come to life, you have to figure out the theme. Of course, Windermere came prepared with its theme for the school’s 10th year. However, that still is under wraps. 

A theme is what your book is based around. For example, Windermere’s theme for the ninth yearbook this past year was “On Cloud 9” — a book filled with clouds and sky-themed puns. After a long and daunting process of picking themes then giving it its 15 seconds of fame before finding a better theme, and on the heels of the outstanding feedback we received on this ninth book, we’ve decided to go even bolder for our 10th year. 

Then, we move onto picking our colors and cover; this part of the process always is the most enticing for our creative team. The Windermere team met with a Varsity Yearbook designer to create our cover. Safe to say our cover still is not final, however, we have our colors chosen. With more than 100 colors from which to choose, we decided on just eight. These colors will be used throughout the book to tie our theming back into our physical pages. 

Now for the most important part of the entire yearbook: the interviewing and copy writing. This was the topic of the majority of the workshops we attended. How can we improve our interviewing techniques to include more of the stories on campus? 

One of our favorite workshops on this matter was titled “Don’t Go Get a Quote, Get a Story,” and it outlined exactly how to have a conversation with a purpose. Our staffers learned to focus completely on the interviewee rather than themselves. Worrying about “What will the student think of me?” or “Does my hair look nice?” will distract from the purpose of the interview and might make you miss some of the most vital information. Focus on your interviewee. Then, make sure you are listening to understand rather than to get a quote. The majority of your deep-cut questions will come from actually listening to the student and going off a piece of information they just stated. You do not have to stick to your written script. 

As your yearbook staff, we want to know the “why” and “how” of your story. We want to dig into the process of it rather than just listing off the outcome. Our goal is to capture the best angle for the story and give our students the utmost respect to ensure we are not wasting their time — a skill our Palooza attendees will share with the 40 other students in our yearbook class this upcoming year. 

Most parts of creating and designing the yearbook go unnoticed. Needless to say, you might see our staffers in their navy “yearbook staff” T-shirts out in the halls or pulling you out of class. 

However, the real heart and soul of this book comes from your staff members and their relationship with one another. None of the book could be done if it weren’t for the community we have built in and out of class. Yes, we get competitive when we go out bowling as a team and Aston Dawson does better than all of us. Yes, we get heated while figuring out our cover when Moore and Gaby Agudelo both have equally great ideas. Yes, we fail and have to start again when it comes to helping Copley Montoya figure out where we are putting senior quotes. 

But even with all of this bickering, we have all become such a tight-knit family. We will go out and support Izzy Grau and Lauren Harper during their senior softball seasons, and Henley Brown during her senior lacrosse season, while Malu Boni de Oliveria makes us laugh until our stomachs hurt. We will continue to support one another, because without it, there would be no way we could come together and create this yearbook. Community is everything.  

At Palooza, we all grew closer. We all had our moments, but we learned to push past them and cheer on one another. I am so proud of this team and am even more proud to be their leader. I definitely know there will be moments where I will fail as their leader. However, I know I am falling back on such an incredible team. 

This 10th year will be the best yearbook yet in Windermere High’s history. We’re excited to take the knowledge we learned at Yearbook Palooza and put it into this amazing book.