For the third time in school history, the campus yearbook, The Shield, was awarded first place and All-Valley distinction by the San Joaquin Valley Scholastic Press Association on March 6.

Over 100 schools participated in the annual Muckracker Journalism Conference at Fresno State. Co-editor Kristen Dunne, ’04, also received an honorable mention for her on-the-spot yearbook page design.

“It’s always nice to win an award,” Molly Sargent, yearbook adviser, said. “I am very proud of Kristen and all the others, but I don’t need an award to tell me that I have a great staff.”

In order to keep the competition unbiased, many of the judges selected were from out of state.

“In the yearbook competition the judges looked for content, design, layout, photos and the overall package,” Gary Rice, conference director, said. “Those who judge are people who are familiar with yearbooks. We also try to find some judges who don’t know anyone in California.”

The Shield was judged for the ’02-’03 yearbook and its theme, “For all it’s worth.”

“The theme for last year’s year book a combination of ideas from different people,” Tricia Hill, ’03, former editorial staff member, said. “We wanted to have a Christian theme that year and we came up with ?For all it’s worth.’ Our life is all for Christ and everything we have is his.”

The campus yearbook has been published and printed by Jostens Publishing for the past 10 years. In addition to printing yearbooks, Jostens also manufactures class rings, graduation products and more.

Jostens selected The Shield as a sample book in ’99, ’00 and ’01. For those years, Jostens copied selected yearbooks and distributed them nationwide to every school that used Jostens as a publisher.

“It’s always an honor for our yearbook to win awards and be recognized because it is such a small book,” Dunne said. “We try to please the students as much as we can by putting things they want in the book, but we have to do it without breaking any of the journalistic rules. Students don’t realize how much time goes into making the yearbook so they can’t possibly appreciate it enough.”

Hopes are high for the ’04-’05 yearbook as juniors Jenna Burford and Danae Cook will receive the title of yearbook co-editors next year.

“To be able to work in yearbook students need to be organized, creative and have writing skills,” Sargent said. “Jenna and Danae are very organized and I am confident in what they can do. I expect the yearbook production next year to go smoothly.”

For more information about yearbook, students and parents can contact Sargent at 299-1695, ext. 150.