Designing a high school yearbook requires a great many skills and talents, and an incredible amount of time throughout the year. Student volunteers labor to create a book that captures all the moments, big and small, through both words and photographs. This year, for Winter Term, Yearbook Faculty Advisor and Upper School Librarians Katie Voss and Colleen Williamson offered the opportunity for any student to gain experience and skills in interviewing, writing stories, editing, design, and photography while producing spreads for a creative, innovative yearbook that records school memories and events.
“I have loved watching our students get excited about creating a totally student-produced publication for our community,” said Voss. “It is hard to explain just how much detail-oriented work goes into the yearbook, from planning, to interviewing, to photography, to writing, to designing, to revising, and Winter Term has given us a great opportunity to have an extended chunk of time for our new staff members to immerse themselves in the experience. I really hope some of them will decide to become regular staff members after the Winter Term experience is over!”
The students gathered each day to learn how to use the design software for our yearbook, and then branched out to cover what their peers were doing and learning in their own Winter Term classes.
“By the end of Winter Term, I ended up really enjoying this class,” said Navya Reddy ’27. “It took a good amount of work and planning to finish our spreads and mods for the yearbook, but I had fun thinking up subheadings and captions and just getting to design spreads in a more relaxed environment. I was interested in learning how to write a good story for the yearbook, and I’m very happy with what my group accomplished across the whole spread.”
Dawon Moore ’27 found the specific skill he wanted to burnish and embraced the opportunity to roam around the Upper School campus. “I enjoyed taking photos of our community here at MICDS,” he said.
“I enjoyed my Winter Term class, and it was really cool understanding how digital design works and how the MICDS community is advertised and brought together through the yearbook and in school journalism,” said Kaan Caliskan, ’27. “My favorite part about the class was being able to leave and explore campus while journaling and taking photos of what was going on throughout Winter Term. It was fun while also allowing us to connect more to our MICDS Rams and what Winter Term was really all about.”
Voss shared a sneak peek into two spreads the Winter Term students worked on.
Great job capturing all the moments, Rams!