Picture This: Yearbook In The Making

Long after graduation, when we’re fully grown with families of our own, there will be a time that our CB yearbooks come back to haunt us and/or bring us our favorite memories. Whether it was a memorable homecoming dance or braces freshman year, our very own yearbook team captures it all. It’s Mrs. Natalia Schorn’s first year as yearbook coordinator, and with a whopping team of seven people, herself included, creating chemistry and managing deadlines is a heavy task to delegate.

Previously, our yearbook classes were led by Mrs. Chrys Casetta, who kept the tradition going for 18 years. Taking over for her as coordinator was a tough transition. As a teacher who is used to and enjoys following her own lesson plans, Mrs. Schorn had trouble creating structure for a completely new class. With 244 pages to fill and finalize within seven months, the yearbook class has been working tirelessly since day one of the school year. 

Initially, the biggest struggle was working with the editing system Lifetouch, a new experience for Mrs. Schorn and her six students. Figuring out how to upload photos, add captions, and divide sections took a lot of teamwork and patience. For Aubriana Lene (‘23) and Walker Hernandez (‘23), this was actually a major blessing.

“It’s normally a senior class, but being a junior is great because we can learn everything early.” Aubrie explains. “It was rough at first, but since we’re familiar with the system now, hopefully Walker and I can help the new students next year.” 

Melody Lednicky Lehman (‘22) was yet another victim of the learning curve.

“If I had joined as a junior, especially since there was a bigger class, I would’ve gotten way more help. A lot of it is ‘How do you move this picture? What’s going on?’” Melody laughs, “I definitely would’ve come back too — I do enjoy it.” 

Melody does a lot of editing, spending around three to five hours a week outside of the classroom getting photos filtered and ready for her sections.

“Editing pictures takes forever. We have a ton of photos, and we do most of them by hand,” she explains. “I don’t have access to Photoshop at homem but the school does. Sadly, I don’t know how to use it so most of the photos get edited on my iPad or laptop.” 

Long before the editing process comes the actual photography. When we would have a prayer service on the Mary Lawn, it was Melody standing out in the heat, squinting at her camera lens. You may have even seen Kenny Ortiguesa (‘22) pop in a class of yours for some great candids. It’s a lot of work for such a small team, and even with outside volunteers, they are still on the hunt for more pictures. 

“It still is difficult, though, because our volunteers can’t log on to the system,” Aubrie says. “Getting photos from students really does help — we’re grateful for it.”

Student submissions are a great way to both ease the workload of our yearbook committee and incorporate more student life into the final product. Melody and Kenny can’t bring their cameras to everyone’s pre-homecoming photo shoots, so submitting your mom’s favorite picture of the night might be their best bet.

For students outside the committee, it’s hard to grasp how much effort goes into putting a yearbook together. Even the ad pages at the very end, often overlooked, have to be meticulously organized and edited. Every page is started from scratch, edited, and finalized one by one. Once all the sections come together, and final deadlines arrive, we will be one step closer to receiving another great yearbook this Founder’s Day.