After many long nights spent at school and many spreads later, Robinson’s 2023-2024 yearbook staff finally finished the yearbook and sent it off to the printing press.
With the process beginning before school in July, staffers began thinking of possible themes. Editor-in-Chief Jada Lupher (’24) explained that it was a long, grueling (but rewarding) process that began towards the end of summer at Camp Orlando, a multi-day journalism field trip designed to help teach and better journalism students’ knowledge. At camp, yearbook staffers spent the last nights brainstorming possible themes with the newly learned knowledge.
“Our original inspiration came from a bunch of vintage Vogue magazines. It started at Camp Orlando, but it came together at elite weekend,” Lupher said.
Though they began plotting at camp, things didn’t pick up until Elite Weekend, which takes place at a hotel in Orlando where the staff presents their ideas to a group of professionals from Walsworth Yearbook board who either give the green light and approve of their progress or inform them that they need to go back to square one.
“We got it [the theme] by Elite Weekend in September. We had a consistent theme all year, which was nice, and everyone was excited. It was very different than what we’ve done the last two years, and I think, for once, everyone was on the same page for what the vision was; but we lost more than half of our staff, which was difficult,” Lupher said. “We didn’t have as many people and everyone had their extracurriculars so people couldn’t stay after school or go to events, so it was really difficult to get the coverage that we needed, but it pulled together in the end, and we met deadlines.”
This year’s theme is “So Much More.” While the idea can be interpreted differently depending on the person, Photo Editor Stefany Moreira (’25) explained that this theme is meant to highlight everything Robinson has to offer post-construction.
“It means that there’s a lot more to Robinson. The past few years we made it about construction and the portables, and I think this year, with the new school, we have gathered a lot more school spirit and we’ve also brought back more tradition,” Moreira said. “I think that it means there’s more to us [Robinson] and our small community.”
With an integration of IB and traditional students, the class suffered a loss of many students whose schedules changed second semester due to the way IB schedules worked. Due to these absences and scheduling issue with yearbook being fifth period there were challenges along the way, but compromises allowed smooth sailing in the creation of the book.
“We just made it work. We learned that we all had to help each other out, and even though you were assigned your spread, we all kind of worked together to finish them; because not everybody could go to the event for their spreads, so it was a complete joint effort,” Lupher said.
Moreira agreed on the stressfulness of it all.
“The process was stressful, but we got everything done on time,” Moreira explained. “We procrastinated a little bit, but it was very cool seeing how the book was coming together with the theme and all the other elements that come into it.”
The staff’s many dedicated hours eventually created a 223-page yearbook, set to be released in the second week of May. Lupher suggests that this year’s yearbook is different than ones of the past and that the yearbook staff have made some big improvements.
“I think it looks really good, very bold. We have some funny stories throughout, we brought back elements of old books, and it’s much cleaner,” Lupher said. “I think this year people are going to be excited about it because it’s sleek, it’s pretty, but it’s still colorful. It’s very Robinson.”
Moreira believes purchasing the book is a great investment of memories and is worth the purchase.
“It’s good to keep those kinds of memories and to see yourself or your friends and get it signed. It might not be something so important to you now, but once you’re out of high school and you’re in college it’s just something to look back on and remember those moments in high school,” Moreira said. “I look forward to people seeing almost everything, the pictures, the design of it all, everything just comes together so beautifully. I think I’m most excited for people to see the pictures; our photography did improve a lot this year.”
