Journalism Work Night was (Year)Booked!
Photo Credit: Editors Lillian Broussard and Elise Juneau
Before being a part of journalism, I never paid much mind about the yearbook other than receiving it at the beginning of each year and doing what pretty much everyone does: flipping through it once or twice, laughing at pictures of my friends looking stupid, reminiscing on the year before, and then putting it up on the shelf where it will likely stay a long time (sorry, Mrs. Bourque). I also never thought about the process behind making a yearbook; I guess I just assumed someone outside of school made it for us, and all we had to do was send in one or two cute pictures of us and our friends, and there it would be in the yearbook the following year. Now that I am in journalism, I have seen firsthand that that is not what happens. At all. There is a lot more blood, sweat, and tears that go into that book than you would think.
You’re probably asking yourself, if someone doesn’t make the yearbook for us, then who does make it? If you’ve stumbled onto Authored Ascension and are reading this article, then you’ve found your answer: the journalism staff! Everyone in journalism is assigned a page or two (or three or four or ten) that they design all on their own, starting with a completely blank page (see below). It is that person’s job to make sure that they have a nice, eye catching layout that follows specific guidelines set by Mrs. Bourque and the editors. Once they have a nice layout, they need to write necessary captions and fill in pictures where the picture boxes are (check out what a finished layout should look like below). It may not seem like a lot, but having 23 people create a 140-page book that goes out to the whole school on top of schoolwork, sports, and getting a decent amount of sleep is a whole lot of work.
To really get on top of things, on January 16, 2019, from the hours of 6 to 10 pm, the journalism staff came together at school to work on their pages, and make sure all the finishing touches are there to meet the first set of deadlines. Senior and Editor Elise Juneau said, “We made a great amount of progress at our work night and it got more people in the class excited about the yearbook!” I also spoke to junior Virginia Vascocu about her first year in journalism and her experience so far, and this is what she said: “I really was unsure of what to expect before coming into journalism, but after being in it or a whole semester I have come to appreciate the hard work that this class puts into creating this yearbook. The work day was a big help and got me ahead on my layouts!” As we turn the page of this chapter of the year, there is so much in store in this next chapter and journalism will be there to capture it all (for the yearbook of course)!
