Yearbooks have been a part of American culture for decades now. Seniors receive a book at the end of the year showcasing unforgettable moments they spent during their last year. With that being said, Yearbook is the most popular and high demand class at John Dewey.
It’s a class filled with creativity and dedication when it comes to capturing every single moment during a student’s senior year.
For the past 3 years Ms. Alteon has been the head of the Yearbook Committee. She was involved in Yearbook during her high school years. It was fun to her, but she wasn’t exactly proud of what she contributed towards it.
Explaining why she took charge of YBC, Ms. Alteon said “When I came to this school, little by little I was like ‘let me see what the year book is looking like’ it just wasn’t capturing what I thought it should capture. Predominantly the yearbooks have been very ‘club focused’, and not all seniors are in clubs. So when yearbook became mine I wanted it to be very senior focused because you guys are paying for the book, deserve to be in the book more than once, more than just the portrait photo, that’s when I took it on.”
YBC students have an immense amount of responsibility when it comes to planning events, creating an unforgettable yearbook each year, and just making it fun and enjoyable. Taylor Nancoo, a YBC member and senior said, “We have an enormous responsibility of capturing big and small moments of seniors throughout their last year. Our job is to tell a story through images, it’s like the saying ‘a picture has 1,000 words’ and the importance of highlighting what our school represents and means to us.”
Behind the doors of Room 226 students had to learn how to take out their creative side of themselves and learn how to showcase it. Many students in class struggled to be confident in posters or yearbook pages they had to present to the class and Ms Alteon because there is such a high standard.
Johannah Emmanu Fortune, YBC member and senior, had opened up about the struggles of being in such an important class, “If I’m being honest I’ve struggled with the judgment of Ms. Alteon and my Peers because in Yearbook if I create something and not everyone is onboard with it, then I’ll have to change it, because it’s important that we all agree on something but it can become super stressful at times.”
Although YBC is pretty stressful at times, there are definitely some more lighthearted moments that members have shared with each other. Committee members tend to have a lot fun when decorating decorations for some of their events.
Members use each other as models for shots whenever they have to pull out the cameras, and help each other out when figuring out how to use software they´ve never used before.
Taylor also shares what she benefited out of YBC, stating “I get the opportunity to bond with students that are new to me, and get to understand the social development being around my classmates and community has on me that I’ve never thought before.”
Yearbook sums up all the hardships and fun moments that YBC members have to go through. The pressure of having such high expectations of delivering a great yearbook making the seniors last year memorable, is a tall task for YBC members to balance. However, with all the hard work it pays off at the end of the day.
