Current Events

“Green and Gold” earns national recognition.

Camille Collier
May 7, 2012

When a pivotal mistake was made in the publishing of last year’s West Linn High School yearbook, the swift efforts to correct it became a nationally recognized success. Last year’s Green & Gold yearbook has been credited for its design, creativity and especially for a layout assembled at the very last minute.

Glenn Krake, yearbook adviser, said that the winning design was an “accident.” When the printers made a mistake, the editors decided upon the theme of a new design, and then the entire class worked on the spread for only two or three days.

“It wasn’t really like we were working towards an award,” Hannah Morton, senior yearbook editor, said. “It was more like an excitement because it wasn’t planned.” When last year’s designs were created, Morton was a co-editor on the staff.

The Jostens’ Look Book, a national publication, recognized the spread for providing design to schools across the nation. Jostens is a publisher that produces high school yearbooks and annually the publisher distributes a “Look Book.”

“The ‘Look Book’ goal is to help you generate ideas for next year’s yearbook,” Morton said. “You have to do something out-of-the-box to make other schools re-evaluate what they’re doing. I didn’t think we would ever be in the Look Book.”

The spread that was selected for this year’s Jostens’ 2012 Gotcha Covered Look Book is a layout of Facebook photos fit between various borders. Although the original spread is eight pages long, only part will be displayed in the 288-page Look Book.

“We all pitched in since we had such a time crunch to do this,” Morton said. “A lot of time went into getting all the pictures. We thought about what would be fun for other students to look at.”

Morton and the other editors had thought of a Facebook-oriented layout for a while because it can be seen as a current trend.

“It’s a lot of work,” Morton said. “We spent a lot of time trying to do something different than past years.”

According to Krake, recognition from the 2012 Jostens’ Gotcha Covered Look Book is not the only honor for last year’s yearbook. At the highest level of critique, the work was awarded an All-American status for its designs and coverage of the past year.

“We try and capture the moment,” Krake said. “We try to capture what tells the story of this year.”

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About the Contributor

Camille Collier, Editor-In-Chief

During eighth grade, young Camille Collier, senior, was in her language arts class taught by Graeme Sandell at Rosemont Ridge Middle School. While many eighth graders sit and stare at the wall not thinking about their futures, Collier was doing just the opposite. At this time, she had decided that she wanted to be a part of the Amplifier during her high school years. “Mr. Sandell really aided my interest in writing,” Collier said. On the first day of freshman year, Collier walked into the Amplifier classroom and has worked her way to becoming the editor-in-chief. Over the past three years, Collier has made countless memories during her time in Amplifier. “The obvious reason I love this class is because of the people,” Collier said. “The other staff members I have the privilege of working beside present different views and really work well as a cohesive whole. I am delighted that there is a group of teenagers out there as competent as the staff.” Not only does Collier enjoy the people she is surrounded with, but the demanding environment that is the journalism world. “I just love the sense of urgency that is journalism. Without it, it makes it kind of a bore so having to work feverishly to track down people to interview, write, edit, and upload a story is a really accomplished feeling.” Not only does she have an admiration and respect for her classmates, but they feel the same way about Collier. “She’s a really funny and intelligent person,” Nicole Gray, senior, said. “Without a doubt she keeps everything and all of us in order.” Collier stays busy not only with the Amplifier, but runs on the Varsity Cross Country Team along with taking four rigorous advanced placement classes that include AP English, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry and AP French. Collier has managed to stay highly successful with such a stressful workload by simply re-adjusting her mindset towards the classes. “It’s one thing when you’re taking a bunch of hard classes in which you are not vested and have no interest,” Collier said. “It’s another when you actually feel privileged to study topics that intrigue and inspire you.” Collier’s one piece of advice is to “actually select classes that inspire even a little bit of your interest.” With Collier’s strong academic success, she has been able to set herself up in a position to attend a highly elite university. She has set her goals high in hopes of studying microbiology. Collier isn’t just envisioning her college life, but her life after college and her career. “I want to be really interested in my work, whichever specific endeavor I chose. I want to be in a place where I’m working hard and I’m feeling good about my hard work,” she said. “I want to have the mindset I do right now, which is that hard work doesn’t dissipate into despair and it eventually pays off.” Collier doesn’t want to just have a “ho-hum, work 35 years then retire” kind of life. For her, life is more important than just sticking to daily norms. She wants to make a difference. “Life is a journey and I don’t want to sit around and do nothing,” Collier said. I want to break barriers. I want to have an impact.”