Every year, the yearbook is protected as a top-secret operation for Westminster. The only peek into the process is the occasional student pulled out of class for an interview or a mysterious photographer at a football game. One class is dedicated to the Westminster tradition, the yearbook, and the Roar is going behind the scenes to uncover the yearbook process.
“[Making the yearbook] is incredibly difficult, and extremely hectic, but the reward of making something so spectacular as well as the fellowship along the way is what makes it so much fun,” said Michael Becker, senior.
The yearbook staff is made up of nearly thirty upper school students, including the staff members, the section editors, and the co-editors-in-chief.
This year, the staff is taking a new approach to these sections.
“We changed our sections this year to make it a section editors care more about rather than just a job from a technical standpoint.They don’t focus on writing or photography or design. They are jacks-of-all-trades,” said Scott Vonder Bruegge, yearbook adviser.
The new editors include Mattie Drury and Julia Davis, seniors, who are design editors; Michael Becker, senior, the photography editor; and Kaylie Duke and Sierra Mathews, seniors, who serve as co-editors-in-chief.
The staff editors supervise, edit, and assist the staff members who submit their work to their corresponding editor.
“The hardest part of yearbook is getting every student in the book. We have a list of every student in the school, and as soon as they get ‘used’ on a spread you cross them out to ensure that every kid gets a chance to be in the book,” said Hannah Caple, junior.
With all the students at Westminster, it can be a challenge to make sure that everyone from the shy seventh grader to the seasoned senior gets a picture or a story in the yearbook.
“Most yearbooks get candid photos of 30-40% of the student body. We consistently get over 95% of the WCA student body in the book,” said Vonder Bruegge.
The yearbook team has to fit an entire year of victories, current events, and changes into a single book, and getting it all done on time is quite a feat as well.
“The deadlines vary because there are about five or six sections to the yearbook and we have about 3 deadlines per section. So we usually work on deadlines for about a month or so with a deadline about every week or so,” said Maddie Ottsen, junior.
A lot is at stake for yearbook members to meet their deadlines. The yearbook must be turned in to the printer by a certain date, or the book risks being distributed in the summer instead of at the end of the school year.
After the tradition of gathering to receive yearbooks takes place, the staff has to get back to work before school is out.
“We sit down at the end of the school year after we hand the yearbook out and we start planning the next year’s book. We craft a theme, a story, a message, and then design elements and the rest all follow,” said Becker.
This dedication and hard work is what makes the yearbook so fresh and notable year after year.
The yearbook has received multiple awards, including being featured in Walsworth publishing’s gallery of excellence for six years in a row.
“I enjoy having an impact on how we sum up our year as a school. I get the opportunity to leave a mark through telling the stories of all the kids at Westminster,” said Caple.
