SHC’s Award-Winning Yearbook Staff Goes to Camp!

Yearbook Camp. Yeah, that is a real thing. As the Moderator of the Shamrock Yearbook, I take the rising Editors to Yearbook Camp each summer where they plan and prepare for the next volume of the Shamrock Yearbook. The camp is held on a college campus, so attendees get to experience a taste of college life by staying in the dorms, eating from the campus dining hall, and attending classes. The classes cover design trends, leadership skills, and a myriad of journalism topics. In addition to the classes, there are planning sessions for staff members to plan specifics for their book and meet with a professional artist to make their vision for the cover the packet created by each school in the planning sessions are judged on the final night.

Maia Alviar ’18 and Sarina Patel ’18 will be on the yearbook staff for their fourth year, while the coming school year will make a third year on the yearbook staff for Ciara Gaffney ’18 and Bridget Laffey ’18. They all agreed that attending the camp was worthwhile, and the spirit of competition motivated them to achieve far more than they would have in the basement of La Salle.

While it can be discouraging to see other schools that have yearbook staffs that exceed 50 students, and often span over two sections of the course which meets everyday of the week, it was also a vote of accomplishment for us to see that what we achieve with a small staff which meets just once most weeks.

Our book held up to the critics and was actually a recognized name in the yearbook world. Even though we earned the Award of Excellence last year, that book is done and we have started planning for the next one. The judges of the competition at camp all think that we are well on our way for another successful book. In fact, SHC took second place in the competition which included more than 160 attendees from nearly 50 schools in Northern California and Hawaii. Go Irish!