This 2023-24 yearbook will make each student the star of the publication.
Led by new photography teacher Ryan Bowden, a new approach to the yearbook will bring more excitement to the end of the year with creative ideas, stories, and photographs.
Mr. Bowden, an award-winning yearbook creator, is the new photography, digital design, and yearbook teacher. He has transformed this yearbook class with an entirely new approach.
“This year has changed because we are now factoring in more things into the yearbook. Before, the yearbook was just a picture book,” said Tallulah Bell, the 11th grade editor-in-chief of the yearbook team and a third year member. “Now we are adding journalism, photography credits, and segments about students. It is really different, but I think these improvements will make it so much more memorable for everyone.”
In the past, yearbooks were characterized by simplicity and presented visual highlights of the year.
This year’s yearbook aims to go beyond the superficial and delve more deeply into the experiences and personalities that make up the school community. With the main goal of bringing back all these memories in a more illuminated sense, this major reform will be a great challenge for the members of the yearbook, but it will also lead to the personal growth of everyone along with it.
“So my philosophy is that it’s your book, and Yearbook is a Journalistic class,” said Mr. Bowden. “It should be 100% student-run and published.”
One of the major reforms awaiting yearbook will be to put the spotlight on the students.
The yearbook will more clearly document the accomplishments and events of the students. In addition, it will highlight the talents of emerging journalists and photographers. The shift to journalism and photography means that students will take an active role in documenting their own stories, making the yearbook more personalized.
But this reform is not just about content; it is also about experience.
This year’s yearbook classes are introducing new positions that encourage student collaboration and interaction. By taking on roles on yearbook teams, students can work closely with their peers, bond with them, and complement them with skills they can use in the future.
“They get experience talking in front of people, leading younger students and teaching them skills so a lot of my editors end up being able to learn how to communicate what they want to others,” said Mr. Bowden.
These are just a few of the ways in which this yearbook will help you grow as a person by making your students more social and giving each of them a sense of responsibility.
This year’s yearbook will be a good way to tell the history of this OVS in a clearer and more colorful way.
“Change will always be difficult,” Tallulah said. “However, the hard work that we put in will definitely be worth the outcome of an amazing yearbook.”