Behind the scenes of the Tartan Yearbook

Every year, hundreds of students line up at the student store to purchase the Tartan Yearbook. Students excitedly flip through the pages as they look for pictures of memorable moments from the past year.

However, people rarely think about all the hard work and time that goes into producing the photos and designs of the yearbook. Each of the talented and dedicated students in this year’s Yearbook class provides a vital influence on the final product. Starting in August, seniors and editors-in-chief Nitika Thakur, Qlehd Guiwa and Cassandra Arambula dedicate hours every day to work towards producing a fantastic yearbook with an innovative theme.

“Every year we have a new theme and this year our goal is to implement it in every aspect of the yearbook. It is very challenging to get a team of 38 people on the same path, but as a chief it is my job to keep them consistent,” Arambula said.

The editors-in-chiefs alone cannot create a good yearbook without a strong team of section editors, business managing editors, and staffers behind them. Section editors work on different pages in the yearbook that cover sports, clubs, and school events. Copy editors write the captions and headlines while design editors organize the photos in an aesthetically pleasing way. In addition, the yearbook class gives an opportunity to those with skills and experience in photography to capture big school events like Homecoming and Senior Day.

“Everyone plays such a huge role in putting together the yearbook. Staffers do a huge bulk of the work. They have to do their assignments, conduct surveys, take photos, and receive additional work from different editors. Without them, we would have no content. They’re the backbone of yearbook,” Thakur said.

Producing the yearbook takes a lot of hard work as everyone in the class stays after school at least two hours a week to work on designs and photo edits in addition to photographing extracurricular school events.

“Deadlines are probably the most stressful aspect in Yearbook. Once, I had to stay after school until 10:00 p.m. because we fell behind on a deadline,” Guiwa said.

Along with receiving great appreciation from the student body, the yearbook class also encounters great criticism towards their work. Whether someone’s name was spelled wrong in a caption or someone finds a tiny grammatical error, the condemnation is always hurled at the yearbook staff.

“People will notice the smallest mistakes and dig your grave. We always tell the staffers not to care about the criticism though. If people wanted to change something in the yearbook, then they should have joined the class,” Thakur said.

In spite of all the critics, the Tartan Yearbook proves to be a purchase that students look forward to. During the last week of school, students spend hours flipping through the book, proving that the school yearbook is always a huge hit.

“It is such a great feeling at the end of the year to have a tangible accomplishment of producing a book of over 300 pages. Seeing the proofs of every spread as the year goes on is so satisfying because we know that hard work from every single student was put into it,” Thakur said.