Yearbook Kicks Off Its Virtual Year at NP3 High

By Krista Chouang
Staff Writer | The Pacific Times

2018-19 Yearbook

Yearbook class begins its virtual year at NP3 High, and due to distance learning, it’s going to work a bit differently.

Yearbook is mostly a student-led extracurricular class where students earn five elective credits helping create the yearbook.

“The best part about this class is that it gives credits for our transcripts and is a great thing to have on your college applications as well as a creative outlet for many individuals as well,” senior Mohammed Gealani said.

2019-20 Yearbook

Typically, yearbook documents live events on campus with pictures, student surveys, and videos. These elements are combined to creatively design the hardcopy yearbook students buy at the end of the school year.

This year, students in the class will be maintaining the same structure from previous years while also mixing in more virtual elements such as AR (augmented reality) codes linked to interactive videos and slides. Pictures from live, in-person events will be more difficult to incorporate, but the book will still be available for purchase at the end of the year.

This year, the yearbook class is putting a new system in place in which they have assigned leaders to three departments.

The first is the page design team, lead by co-editors Khadijah Muhammad and Kimberly Chouang.

“These students will be hunting the stories down, collecting images, and writing about them,” said yearbook adviser Heather Higgins. “You will need to be able to think creatively, learn our design program, meet deadlines, and work with the other teams regularly.”

The second team is marketing and social media, managed by Jagjeet Kaur. Their job is to advertise and make campaigns for the yearbook, along with social media communications about the yearbook. This role is especially important to ensure that student body input, such as club descriptions and school experiences, are recreated accurately.

“The third team is perfect for my tech-savvy students who love to work with video editing and AR coding,” said Higgins. “Last year, we incorporated some aspects of this in various sections and are adding to this format. You will work directly with the page designers to ensure AR slideshows and videos are embedded and functioning correctly.”

The coding team is led by Mohammed Gealani.

All three yearbook teams work with editor-in-chief Caroll Loupeda, who acts as the project manager and a liason between the departments to make sure everything runs smoothly and deadlines are met.

Want to join?

Yearbook is looking for “creative, responsible students…who can meet deadlines, work as a team, and communicate effectively both verbally and in written form,” Higgins said.

“Although yearbook can be intense, it is also very fun and creative,” said Kaur. “Getting to work on the yearbook pages and putting everything together is a fun and creative process and being able to see the gradual progress of a complete yearbook is quite exciting.”

A yearbook tutorial was held on August 26 as preparation for their first class on Sept. 1. Yearbook meetings are scheduled to take place on Tuesdays from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.; attendance is mandatory.

Students who want to join but missed the tutorial may contact Ms. Higgins at [email protected] by Saturday, August 29 for information you missed.

“Our diversity is what makes us strong and showing that through the Yearbook is such a rewarding experience each year,” said Higgins. “Students should join if they would like to be part of a team, who can meet a fixed deadline, can think creatively, and who want to tell NP3’s 2020-2021 never-seen-before story of what this school year will look like.”

Follow NP3 Yearbook’s Instagram @np3yearbook to keep up with their progress and get updates.

Meet your yearbook leaders

Ms. Higgins

“My name is Ms. Higgins and I am the Fine Arts and Yearbook teacher for NP3 High School. I have been teaching at NP3 for ten years, also being the Yearbook Advisor those ten years as well. As the Yearbook Advisor, I work with leading the students to complete a cohesive, engaging, and creative annual for the student body to enjoy. I also get to design some sections, specifically the Staff and the Senior Parent/Guardian Ads which are the really fun parts of the job. The best part of being the Advisor for the Yearbook Class is seeing the year’s story come together, celebrating what makes NP3 such an amazing place to share our days together. Each year has its own personality because of the diverse, unique, and hardworking team who spend countless hours working on their part of the book. I feel that a story can truly be told by those involved in it, that the wider range of personalities designing and writing the story better ensures

Caroll Loupeda

the true narrative of the year.”

“Hi! My name is Caroll Loupeda and I have been in yearbook since sophomore year (meaning this is my third year). I am a senior in Ms. Knestrick’s advisory, and this year I am the editor in chief of the yearbook.

“My main job is to make sure everything runs smoothly so goes are designed well and logistics kept in mind. My main goal is to make sure that every yearbook is better than the last. The absolute best part about yearbook is the creativity and freedom that you get to take a part of as well as working with a team. And all your hard work can be seen in the hands of students at the end of the year!”

Khadijah Muhammad

“My name is Khadijah Muhammad, I am 16 years old will be 17 in December and I am currently a junior in England’s advisory. This is going to be my second year in Yearbook and I am one of the designers for this year’s yearbook along with Kimberly.

“For this position we gather stories with pictures and write about them in the book. Honestly this year, Yearbook will be very different from last year, but what I enjoyed most is being able to design the book. It feels really nice after working on the book and seeing the final product.”

Kimberly Chouang

“Hello everyone! My name is Kimberly Chouang and I am currently a Junior and this year marks my third year in the yearbook club.

“I, along with Khadijah, are the Design Co-Editors. We help develop our yearbook’s design, fix errors, and make our theme in the yearbook consistent and cohesive through the pages. As the title implies, we design the format of the yearbook and collaboratively work to brainstorm and meet deadlines. We will be in charge of the biggest team in yearbook (design team) and encourage creative ideas to implement on our yearbook. I really like the creative freedom we get in making our yearbook and the teamwork we get to do. People should join to get their creative voices heard and to get some student body influence in our yearbook to make it unique to this year.

Jagjeet Kaur

“Hello! My name is Jagjeet Kaur and I am a junior in Mr. Parker’s advisory. I have been in yearbook since last year (2019-2020 school year).
“This year in yearbook I am a social media and marketing manager. Having this position means I ensure that word of our yearbook reaches our students and encourage them to purchase our yearbook. Yearbook requires a lot of dedication to get things done and meet deadlines so our students have a complete yearbook with memorable events…Students who will be joining yearbook this school year (2020/2021) will be participating in a variety of ways. They can choose to work with AR, social media and marketing, and designing. Each job has its own unique task and requires its own area of expertise. I look forward to what this school year will bring us in yearbook!”

Mohammed Gelani

“My name is Mohammed Gealani I am a senior and this year will be my 4th year in yearbook. My job in freshman and sophomore year was to be editors for the yearbook and in sophomore year I also did some marketing as well. For junior and senior year, I have been doing the augmented reality aspect of yearbook, something completely new to us. These jobs require us to be on top of our game and to organize our time accordingly.”