From Freshman Editor to Editor-in-Chief

Yearbook has been at the center of my creative journey and one of the most impactful experiences of my high school career. I first joined in eighth grade as a middle school editor, and as a freshman, I became the first ninth grader ever allowed on the high school staff. That early opportunity opened the door to everything I now love: design, photography, and visual storytelling. By sophomore year, I was named Design Editor, making me the youngest editor in our program’s history. I continued in that role through junior year and now, as a senior, I serve as Editor-in-Chief, leading the entire staff.

What I love about yearbook is that it's more than producing a book, it’s about running a full operation. It's essentially a small business. I've taken on photography, design, marketing, communications, and project management. Sometimes that even meant thinking outside the box, like dressing up as a clown and handing out clown noses during our “Quit Clowning Around and Buy a Yearbook” promotion. I’ve grown immensely as a leader, learning how to guide a team of peers, give constructive feedback, manage large-scale projects, and meet demanding deadlines. Yearbook taught me to think both creatively and strategically: how to design pages that tell a story, how to plan and execute coverage of an event, and how to keep morale and momentum going through the busiest months of the year.

This experience has shaped my leadership style. I’ve learned to balance responsibility with collaboration. To step up when decisions need to be made, but also to create space for others’ ideas and creativity. I’ve grown from a quiet underclassman editor into someone confident in leading meetings, training new staff members, and representing our publication at the school level. 

More than anything, yearbook showed me how powerful design and storytelling can be. It was my first introduction to the creative fields I now want to pursue, and it gave me a foundation of skills, from visual design to project management, that I hope to continue building on in college.