Students in Upper School Librarian Katie Voss’s Winter Term Class, Capture the Moment: How to Yearbook, enjoyed almost two full weeks to hone their creative chops on fun stories around the Upper School. The course appeals to students who want to remember and document all the big moments of high school, who love art and design, and who enjoy talking to people and telling their stories. Winter Term yearbook staff gained skills in interviewing, writing stories, editing, design, and photography … all useful, real-world experience.
After an editorial meeting, students set out to cover their peers in other Winter Term classes. They contacted teachers to determine the best time to visit and learn more. Students were writers and photographers, documenting the experience to immortalize in the yearbook. They were coached on being respectful and not disrupting the class, learning how to be “part of the wallpaper” while spending 15-20 minutes in each class to understand what it was about and to take pictures.
Once the classes were covered, students set out to learn the design system for our yearbook vendor. There is much to consider in yearbook design, beyond captivating copy and striking images. Fonts and layout can help or hinder legibility, and can appeal to readers or cause them to skip a spread. Thankfully, our yearbook staff was up to the challenge, and happily cranked out several spreads ready for publication later this school year.
“Yearbook spreads look deceptively simple and straightforward, but there are so many details to gather and create and manage, from deciding on a topic to writing thought-provoking interview questions to creating a design that can accommodate all of the content—and these are just a fraction of those details!” said Voss. “My yearbook students did an admirable job covering all of these details, while focusing on including as many students in their coverage as possible, portraying the Winter Term experience accurately and authentically, and creating memorable content that they are proud to publish.”
Zion Perry ’29 hasn’t officially joined the yearbook staff yet, but she’s interested. “The class ended up being really insightful and a great experience, especially because I am looking to get into yearbook,” she said. “The biggest challenge we faced was definitely the photography. It was hard to get good shots, mainly because lots of people were nervous or quickly moved on to different activities, and we missed them. We had to go back a lot of times. Some people even seemed a bit annoyed, but we had to get the job done! I am really happy with what my team ended up coming up with, though, and with a lot of editing and precision, I think our spread ended up great!”
Almir Bhatti ’28 agrees with Perry about working to get good photographs, and adds that writing copy has its own issues. “The biggest challenge I faced was being able to get good, yearbook-worthy photos, as some photos, and a big chunk of them were really distracting, vague, or even underwhelming. Writing the main story was confusing at first because of the amount of things you have to double-check such as if it’s in the past tense for every verb, making sure it fits well in the yearbook, and also getting good quotes.”
Yearbooks are printed, so space is at a premium (unlike online publications). Cori Levin ’29 worked with an abundance of content on her spread. She said, “I thought the class went really well. I really enjoyed getting to go to other classes and learn about their experience through our photography and interviews. The biggest challenge I had was just picking what to include in our spreads. We got so much good information and great pictures that it was hard to fit into such a small space. This class helped me gain new skills and become open to new experiences. Overall, I had such a great time in yearbook.”
Bhatti also enjoyed how his classes overlapped and had a good time during Winter Term. “I was very pleased with the work I had completed as I felt like there was a little bit of everything as I created the main story for the Cake Walk spread,” he said. “Taking the photos in a class I was also enrolled in was also fun, as I laughed while also getting the work I needed done!”
Just for you, we’ve got a sneak peek into this year’s issue! Enjoy these early spreads of the 2025-2026 MICDS yearbook:
