by | Kaii Campos
Staff Reporter
Smile for the yearbook! Oct 2 through Oct 6, 2023, was National School Yearbook Week. National School Yearbook Week was made official by former President Ronald Reagan in 1987. Proclamation 5703, “Now, therefore, I, Ronald Reagen, President of the United States of America, hereby proclaim that the week beginning Oct 4, 1987, is National School Yearbook week.” Sept 17, 1987.
School yearbooks have been around for a very very long time, the first one dating back to 1806 at Yale University. School yearbooks are a way to document what goes on at the school and events that would be forgotten if not captured and covered.
“I think it’s important to have a physical copy of what you did in high school, like especially if you’re a little club,” editor-in-chief Jasmine Barrientes said. “ I do think it’s really important to have that time made into something physical because it’s not fleeting.”
In addition to just recording the history, yearbook production in itself is a complicated and messy process but teaches valuable skills and lets the students have something they can enjoy and put their heart into.
“It’s really fun, like when you put all your hard work into the yearbook and then the yearbooks finally come in, it’s like seeing a baby for the first time it’s like, oh my goodness, that kinda shock where it was like, beautiful,” photographer Elanna Hubbart said.
The process of production is a long and hard one, but National Yearbook Week gives not only students but the adviser as well a chance to celebrate and remember why they did this in the first place. A lot of yearbook production companies and people who specialize in making yearbooks use this week to give the high school students doing production fun challenges and ideas on how to celebrate and raise awareness for their book.
“I think it’s important to talk about the people that are making the book,” Barrientes said. “My mom used to go through her yearbook all the time and I’m not even thinking about who’s making it but, on yearbook week as a staff we get to have fun with all these little activities and it’s nice to feel recognized and to recognize the people who make it with me.”
Recognizing the staff and the way they work hard to put together the yearbook is the whole point of the week. It’s a way to help others understand what it’s like recording history and all the effort that goes into it.
“It’s for other people who aren’t in the yearbook to understand that a yearbook is more than just taking pictures, it’s more like production and writing and all that stuff and like creating the yearbook,” Hubbart said.
Everyone works together to create a piece to share with the rest of their school, all of the Yearbook staff pitch in to make this yearbook that will recap that year and not let anything be forgotten. While everyone works together, the main editors and editor-in-chief are the heads who run the show and take charge in order to make sure everything runs smoothly.
“This year I’m editor in chief, it’s me, and I get to make up all the elements and what we cover and I’m so excited,” Barrientes said. “Being able to see the book from start to finish completely and all of it being in my authority, I’m so excited to see the final book.”
