During her freshman year, the now senior Addi Currier searched for an interesting elective to add to her school schedule of courses. “Intro to Foods” drew her eye, but Currier’s mom insisted she refrained from signing up for it, as COVID-19 still had the world in a state of paranoia.
On a whim, she signed up for Yearbook, as there weren’t a lot of other elective options for freshmen. She walked into the classroom, not knowing if she would enjoy herself. Now, she walks into the same classroom as the second-year Editor-in-Chief, ready to tackle the challenge of capturing a year of 1,300 students in one book.
“I found out about yearbook through force, but I ended up really liking it,” Currier said. “I’m so happy that it happened.”
As well as this being Currier’s second year as chief, she is the only returning staff member since everyone else on staff is new this year. While it’s been “different” having to teach everyone from the beginning, Currier feels “excited” about this opportunity.
“The thing about having all new people is that they are willing to learn and they’re enthusiastic about the process,” Currier said. “That makes me hopeful for the future.”
During her sophomore year, she held the position of Assistant Chief Editor. She was trained by the previous Chief Editor in order to fulfill her future leadership role. Now, as Currier goes into her second year as Chief Editor, she feels “prepared” to take on teaching the new staff all the techniques that go into designing the yearbook, just as she was taught.
“I got the position, and I had to work my way up from there,” Courier said. “I was just, like, kind of the successor. I was a sophomore, and the Chief Editor was a senior, so she just trained me, and then I became the Chief Editor.”
Currier’s four years have helped her “grow into the role” she holds according to yearbook adviser Heather Diamond. Though she knows Currier was “a little nervous” when first taking on the role last year, she had “a lot of great ideas” and was “very enthusiastic” about the process.
“She’s just always so excited about coming up with new ideas and things people haven’t seen before,” Diamond said. “She’s wonderful.”
Through her training, Currier learned how to design the book using the software. Before joining the staff, she had no prior experience in online design, so it “took her a while” to pick it up.
“I did not used to be good at designing, I had to look at other mentor designs,” Currier said. “They have templates on the software that we use. My biggest inspiration usually comes from other magazines.”
There are many sections and aspects that go into creating the book, but Currier feels that the pictures are the most crucial part, so she and the staff try to “make it more like a picture book.”
“The most important part of a yearbook is the people,” Currier said. “The people differentiate the events. The same events are going to happen every single year, but it’s the people that make it special.”
The process of designing the yearbook entails creating various templates for each set of pages, which can bring forth difficulties according to Currier.
“Sometimes the information we have is too long and it doesn’t fit in the box. Then we have to alter the design. And depending on how drastic the problem is, that’ll be how drastic the change is,” Currier said. “It’s just like the process of creating a template that works for all of the information”
Another difficult part of designing the yearbook is “getting good pictures.”
“People are really camera shy,” Currier said. “They see you without a camera and they run and hide and duck and cover.”
Though creating the yearbook brings challenges to the staff and designers, “it’s all worth it” to Currier, as her favorite part of the process is “seeing the whole book come together.”
“I oversee the production of like everything so watching it come together is like not to say magical because that’s cliche but it’s so cool,” Currier said.
Once the book is printed and ready to distribute amongst the students, Currier sees “all of the staff’s hard work finally done and paying off,” and it’s “very rewarding” to her.
“When we hand people the books and they’re like ‘oh my god this is so awesome,’ it’s great,” Currier said. “I love seeing the looks on people’s faces.”
This position has taught Currier how to be a leader and how to delegate problems because she leads the rest of the staff and makes all the final decisions regarding the content and format of the book.
“It’s taught me and brings people to achieve a common goal,” Currier said. “It’s really all about leading and time management because we have to meet deadlines and stuff.”
During her freshman year, Currier was “very observant and willing to learn” according to Diamond. Over the four years they’ve worked together, Diamond has watched Currier’s “confidence grow” since she first started.
“I’m sort of just here when she needs somebody to bounce something off of but she knows what she’s doing and she just takes it and runs with it,” Diamond said. “I can’t wait to see how this year’s book turns out because it’s going to be pretty special with four years of experience under her belt.”
Last year, the book’s theme was “for the record,” including a record vinyl on the cover and a continuous theme of records throughout the pages. After the positive feedback the staff received for last year’s design, Currier is “so ready” to jump into this year’s process and she “can’t wait” to see the students and staff’s reactions.
“We have a pretty solid theme this year and it’s going to be great,” Currier said. “It’s going to top last year. I’m excited, I’m ready, and it’s going to knock your socks off.”
