Editing, Leadership, Team Building
Being an Editor
Being an editor is a huge responsibility I take great pride in. My junior year (2024 Pantera Yearbook - We can’t quite explain it but it totally works for us) I was the Design Editor. I was also the only junior editor so that added a little pressure to make sure that I was performing as well or better than the other editors on staff. I didn’t want to fall behind the other editors because I was younger. I used my age as a fuel to produce my best work for the program. That year only 3 people saw every single page of the book before it got finalized and sent to print. It was Charlie (the EIC), Makena (my advisor), and me. As the Design Editor my job was to create design theme visuals and make sure they were consistent from spread to spread. I was also in charge of picking the colors, fonts, and graphic styles. I was given almost full control over what I wanted the book to look like, and Makena trusted me with that.
This year I am the Photo Editor, but I still design and correct copy when needed. My job as the Photo Editor is to make sure no one at the school goes uncovered. If there is an orchestra concert, we have at least two people there to photograph. When Mead Serves is making blankets after school, we have someone there to capture it. We want as many people and stories in the book as possible, so we watch to cover as much as we can. As photo editor I also pick all the pictures that will go on a spread. I have to pick the best pictures that tell the best story.
Leadership
Being a leader in the news room means constantly showing up, providing ideas, being able to think on your feet, and being able to communicate what you want to do with the rest of the staff. I would say that this year our editorial staff has very strong leadership qualities as a whole and we all compliment each other really well. We know each others’ strengths and weaknesses in leading which helps us know where to step in when needed. Knowing each other so well it also doesn’t feel like anyone is taking over or stepping on someone’s toes, because we all genuinely want what is best for the book and the staff. This year our Advisor took a trip to Australia for a few weeks and everything went smoothly. The communication between editors and between the editors and the staff went really well. Everything that needed to be covered got covered. It was almost like Makena wasn’t even gone, it was business as usual.
Team Building
Each year the staff becomes crazy close. We are truly a family by the end of the year. We have laughed together, cried together, watched as the seniors that year graduate and the new members are welcomed onto staff. I have been apart of that for a few years now. From coming onto staff as a sophomore and now being a senior who will leave this program and a group of people who have impacted me so deeply. We have funny little traditions we do to become closer as a staff. We through a wedding each year to marry our theme. We also sign the cone. We have a bunch of little funny activities we do that make us all closer. We will be having races through the hallways to truly prove who the fastest really is on Saturday workdays, when it snows we will spend a day to just go snowboarding on a fake snowboard down a small hill by the track. It’s the small things that all add up that make us a team. We have a bunch of out side of school hangouts because we all genuinely are friends and want to hang out with each other and want to see each other outside of the yearbook room. Sometimes I wonder how we don’t get tired of each other when we are always together but every time we have a Saturday work day or are all just hanging out at someones house we always enjoy the time we spend together. This friendship we build in and out of the classroom translates to respect in the room. When it comes down to crunch time and we are trying to get the last pages submitted we see more and more people coming in to work late at night to help us finish or cover a game that someone else can’t. We all have each other’s backs and are in it for the long haul. The Pantera Yearbook program has brought me some of my closest friends and I am extremely grateful for all the people and opportunities it has brought me over the years.