At 3:45 the students of the Pocumtuck yearbook assemble in the basement of the Classroom Building. Stacks of ad pages, lists of students, and scribbled notes litter a huge table. Students face their dusty, run-down computers lining the walls. With over 120 faculty and staff and 630 students, the making of the Pocumtuck is a year long process.
“I don’t think people are aware of how many hours of designing and work goes into it,” said yearbook editor Miranda McEvoy ’13.
“Making the yearbook requires input from a lot of people who are willing to put in the time to carefully review every detail on every page,” explained Julie Cullen, the yearbook advisor.
The only requirement for the yearbook is that the pictures of all the students and staff are included. The rest is left up to the yearbook staff to decide. With this freedom comes the responsibility of making sure Deerfield is represented inclusively and creatively.
A big part of the job is making sure to physically capture different aspects of campus life such as athletics, the arts, various clubs, and others. Independent photographer Jeff Brown and Thomas Earle ’12 contribute the most photos of campus life. This year’s yearbook takes a more contemporary approach, focusing on the theme of social networking.
The layout of each page is made to look like an Internet page such as Facebook or Twitter. In dorm and athletic photos, every person is “tagged” as they would be on a picture posted on Facebook. With “hash tags” and “tweets” filling its pages, the 2012 Deerfield yearbook is sure to be an unforgettable one.
Ms. Cullen encourages students to “make this yearbook [theirs]. We welcome new members and we area always open to suggestions.”
“It’s everyone’s book, and we want to make a relevant and precise representation of our time here,” McEvoy adds.
Yearbook Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Huebsch, who has been working on yearbook since sophomore year, shares her experience on the job: “As cliché as it sounds, the reason I love working on the yearbook is that it encapsulates a year of experiences for our community. It is a huge commitment and responsibility, but I love every minute of it.”