By: Daniel Manetin

At the end of each academic year, IA students have the opportunity to get their own yearbook; they get a keepsake cesspool of pictures, features, and notable moments to remember over the past year. It might slip the mind at first, but the team that produces these yearbooks spend far more time assembling this assortment of moments than most students realize. In fact, the yearbook team spends the entire year leading up to release planning out, researching, and writing the bountiful pages students turn without a second thought.

Staff member Olivia Veale [12] mentioned that one of the most time-consuming aspects of her work was “going around school and just grabbing interviews with people.” In addition to getting time to go out and find someone to interview, deadlines add even more pressure, and even getting media like videos or photos from featured events becomes a hurdle. As Olivia put it, “sometimes you’ll have to kind of bother [a student] about it, and if they never send anything, you just have to switch it up and find a different person.”

Meanwhile, Yanet Tariku [12], another staffer, explained how the team shapes the structure of the book, stating that the staff “separate it into seasons,” and noted that “you have to have some writing skills because you’re writing all these different quotes.” It’s a challenging effort that doesn’t just require time and dedication, but skill from various aspects, like planning coverage and keeping up student connections. This process forms the backbone of the yearbook each year, and is a reminder to students of how much unseen effort goes into every page of the annual release.