Production Journalism is wrapping up its first year under the new title of “Production Journalism.” Formerly just called “Yearbook,” the advisor, Anne Hayman, decided the class needed to be rebranded after adopting the school website. The class of twenty-four seniors and one junior, John Yeager, take on the massive responsibilities of both producing an award-winning yearbook, and an online news publication. The class requires a level of motivation and dedication that one would find in a work setting. Staffers are expected, but not required, to stay after school whenever possible to pick up slack where needed. “Between sport seasons, we probably averaged about eight hours a week after school. We’ll work on yearbook for a couple hours, then go cover a basketball game and not leave school until 9:00 P.M.” said Caleb Smith ‘15 and Carl Kulper ‘15.

“It’s not what I expected,” said Gage Baker ’15,  “it certainly was a classroom.” James Piscioneri 15 said “everyday I go into that room I say ‘woah.’” The team members said they handled the heavy workload “with an attitude.” Regardless of their approach to tackling the deadlines, the team never was late for any of their deadlines throughout the year.

The hardest part of any yearbook is planning the theme. The planning process typically begins at the end of the preceding year (Hayman already has some plans for this coming year). Last year, the team of returning staffers had the theme of “uncovered” in their minds. But after several workshops, including the workshop in Anaheim, California in October, the four editors realized that “uncovered” did not cut the mustard. It wasn’t until a conversation the editors and Hayman were having when I said “it’s about time we came up with a theme,” that we had decided on “it’s about you” as our theme. “We wanted a book that could apply to all students, and one that would have a more personal feel,” said Editor-in-Chief, Emily Hamacher.

“We’re going to make a better book. This is probably the best book I’ve seen in a while, but for my senior year, I want to make it memorable and as perfect as it can be,” said soon to be Editor-in-Chief, John Yeager. “I needed a CTE credit. At the beginning of the year I slacked off a lot, but once I realized that this is something that gets published and seen by everyone, I started to get more motivated to get involved with the class. I also realized that I’ll be the only returning staffer, so I stepped up my game.”

John is looking forward to next year with high hopes for a staff that wants to produce an award winning book as badly as he does.