This year’s yearbook editorial staff is ready to change the way the school is remembered for generations. The staff feels extra prepared because of the Yearbooks Northwest summer camp at Willamette University in Salem from Aug. 4-6. Staff Members Rameen Ali, photo editor, junior, Isabella Cao, design editor, junior and Kate Walters, copy editor, junior, attended the summer camp to outline the yearbook. The camp offered workshops to build students’ skillsets in photography, technology, leadership, graphic design, interviewing and copy-writing. Willamette University also gave the camp’s attendees a chance to speak with other yearbook editors from the NorthWest.

“I really liked talking to all the yearbook people and hearing their inputs,” Walters said. “They changed the book in an amazing way.”

One of the most beneficial activities the camp offered was a consultation with yearbook experts from across the country, to help formulate and solidify ideas.

“Honestly without their help I think we wouldn’t even have a strong theme yet,” Ali said.  

In order to present an idea to the experts, the editors had to create a poster board to outline the theme of their book.

“We solidified our idea an hour before the posterboard was due,” Cao said. “We did the board in 45 minutes.”

The next day, Willamette University held a yearbook poster board fair, where high schools competed for awards within the camp. An award-winning yearbook consultant, Steve Kent, had inspiring words to say when presenting the Award of Excellence to the Green & Gold staff.

“He said that our book was the heart and soul of the camp,” Walters said. “I cried a lot. A lot.”

The Green & Gold yearbook was the heart and soul of more than just the camp.

“A yearbook advisor for another school said she was going to quit because of the environment and students at her school in California, but she saw our board and wanted to keep teaching,” Cao said. “When she told us her story and how we changed her life and inspired her, I was amazed. She basically said that she had forgotten why she loved what she did, but we helped her remember,” Cao said. “That was so cool to me. I realized that yearbook can touch lives deeper than I ever thought.”

At times, the class can feel less rewarding than the camp. With only one returning editor, this year’s staff is changing in people as well as pace.

“I loved yearbook last year, but it was a lot more chaotic and stressful than it needed to be,” Ali said. “Editors this year are going to look over people’s work and help them, not do everything. We want to change the environment of the class and with that comes a need to change the book.”

“It should be a class that people take seriously and do their work but also enjoy,” Ali said. “We want to change the reputation of yearbook.”