Junior Elsy Mendoza is part of the yearbook staff. One of the steps to complete the yearbook is to take pictures. Mendoza is taking pictures of Mrs. Gadziola's first hour cultural experience for the yearbook. Photo by: Patricia Ortiz.

By Patricia Ortiz

The yearbook may just appear to be pictures, but a lot of hard work is done in order for students to enjoy life long memories.

Every year, the Plymouth High School yearbook staff works hard in order to make the yearbook for students to enjoy.  Since the first day of school, the yearbook staff begins the long process of starting the yearbook.  There are times in which the yearbook staff has to come in during the summer in order to finish the yearbook.  The more deadlines the students do not meet “the longer it will take to get the book published” said senior yearbook editor Sam Hellinga.  The reason why the yearbook staff sometimes has to stay in the summer is “there are things that don’t happen until summer that are included in the yearbook (commencement, some spring sports). So to finish those events we have to come in during the summer.  Another reason we have to work over the summer is if we don’t complete deadlines throughout the year. That has been a problem in previous years so this year we are working hard to stay ahead of deadlines,” added Hellinga.  According to the yearbook adviser, Mrs. Amy Schmeltz the yearbook process takes “about 14 months.”

Everything that needs to be completed, needs to be completed in a certain process.  Completing the yearbook is not any different.  There are many steps to completing the yearbook.  The first thing that needs to be done in order to get the yearbook rolling is, “getting good pictures, sending out and receiving interviews and writing stories. And lastly, putting it all together on the spread,” said senior yearbook staff member Sam Wheat.

The yearbook has many nifty templates.  There are different templates for each section, “sports, student life, academics and reference,” said senior yearbook staff member Kylie Ludwig.  The templates are created, “with boxes, text, and other graphics for ‘fillers’ to fit our needs,”said senior yearbook staff member Zach Mahan.  Wheat says that the templates are in place so that the yearbook looks clean and professional, and so that it does not look like a sloppy mess that was put together in a hurry.

Before the yearbook can be published, it has to be edited.  The yearbook is edited by the “section editors and main editors” said Ludwig.  The main editors are the editors of the whole yearbook.  The section editors are the editors who edit specific sections of the yearbook like the sports editor.  According to Ludwig, the editors “edit it and go over it a ton before we even print the book.  Once we get the new books in, we all look through it before we pass it out to the rest of the school.”  Mrs. Schmeltz said that the yearbook staff and the  “editors and adviser,” edit the yearbook.  Students engage in peer review and fact and quote check with sources.  Then editors double and triple check spreads along with Mrs. Schmeltz.”

The yearbook staff gets the first glimpse of the yearbook when the yearbooks come in in the fall.  Before the students at PHS see the yearbook, “we all got one and looked through it and completed the evaluation. We want to be aware of any errors before the rest of the school gets them,” said Hellinga.  If an error were to occur in the printing of the book, there is nothing that the staff could do.  Obviously they would learn from their errors, and this would help the yearbook become better for next year.