Silver, gold, and bronze are coveted by everyone from professional athletes to high school yearbook classes.

While this campus’s yearbook, The Shield, has received plenty of awards, the true goal of the class is to make the yearbook as appealing to students as is possible while maintaining journalistic standards.

“This year is different from prior years in that we have a lot more skill and experience,” Molly Sargent, yearbook adviser, said. “I’m very grateful for my editors; they are all at least in their second year of journalism and more of the work rests on their shoulders.”

Though prestigious in title, the reality of editing is working extra hours, and agonizing over deadlines.

“There is a lot of work that goes into the yearbook. With deadlines it makes it stressful because we are trying to place pictures at the last minute.” Danae Cook, ’05, co-editor said. “”When the yearbook comes out at the end of the year, it will be worth all the hard work that we’ve expended.””

More dreaded than unfinished work, though, can be computer failures and corruption of pages. A deadline can be offset by weeks if a page is completely lost.

“My pet peeve has to be when after putting a month into making your page it gets corrupted,” Kristen Dunne, ’04, coeditor, said. “No one’s page has become corrupted this year, but in past years a lost page or pictures that get deleted off of the digital camera can ruin your day.”

The most irritating setback to one yearbook designer is the bane of student indecisiveness.

“People don’t know what they want,” Carson Belmont, ’05, yearbook staff member, said. “If you ask someone for a quote they say, ?Make something up for me,’ or just flat out, ?No.’ Those who don’t give real quotes are usually the same people who complain that they’re not in the yearbook at the end of the year.”

Some students take the quality and esteem associated with this campus’s yearbook for granted.

“I don’t really like our yearbook’s pictures,” Larry D. Roeme III, ’06, said. “I would be twice as satisfied with our yearbook if more out of school activities were portrayed; most of my favorite memories took place off campus.”

One unique aspect of this year’s yearbook class is the inclusion of freshmen for the first time. According to Dunne it is always slow teaching new people the ropes, but a freshman that goes on to get four years experience will be more than worth it.

“The experience gained from being on the yearbook production team is by far the best reason to take the class,” Sargent said. “Students gain real applicable knowledge concerning computer graphic layouts, and the programming skills they gain will help them in any job.”

Despite the amazing amount of headaches and hours it takes to make the yearbook, the profitable working skills students acquire, make it a worthwhile class.

For more information concerning yearbooks, please contact Sargent at her email, [email protected]; it is not too late to reserve a copy of the yearbook for $70.