Young yearbook staff steps up to make first deadline

Senior Aarushi Vyas, the new editor in chief for the yearbook, must head a team of new staff members for the just-completed Oct. 31 deadline, which included 24 spreads, which are facing pages in the yearbook that cover an event along with advertisements.

“We only [have] three returning staff, so only three of us have experience,” Vyas said. “Everyone else is new, which [is] crazy.”

Vyas said staff didn’t struggle much and was able to jump right in after some help.

“We did have to spend more time kind of going through the basics and kind of hand-holding them through the steps of like how to make content,” Vyas said. “But now we’ve gotten a lot of experience since we’ve gotten a lot more done towards this deadline.”

The chronological editor, junior Shaila Venkat, said she has had to fill the large hole of a staff member who left after last year.

“I kind of had to make all the spreads for chronological by myself, which was challenging,” Venkat said. “Usually, the editors have to decide what content we will be covering, how to cover it, and so on.”

One problem the team has encountered is a lack of senior advertisements, which are mementos to seniors from parents and family in the back of the book. As of Oct. 19, only four seniors had purchased advertisements.

“It wasn’t until recently that they actually got ads which was freaking us out,” Vyas said. “They’re a big part in funding our book. So, they’re necessary. We really try to get as many as we can.”

They are also struggling to find businesses who are willing to purchase advertising in the book.

“It sounds like it’s not a lot, but it’s really hard to get businesses to sell their ads to you,” Vyas said. “You have to keep getting onto them and you have to show up in person and talk to them multiple times to even get them to sell an ad to you.”

Vyas said the staff has handled it well and is hopeful that future deadlines will look the same.

“I think it’ll go by smoothly because the staff and editors were all working together really well,” Vyas said. “It’s been a pretty good experience overall. So, I think for the second deadline, hopefully it’ll get even better than this one.”

By Anastasia Wright