We tend to give a lot of appreciation for more traditional sports like football, basketball, soccer, etc, but there’s a very critical part of the high school experience that gets overlooked. Most of everyone purchases a yearbook, looks for themselves in the index, and locks it away for a nostalgic night in 30 years. I interviewed Senior yearbook member Lauren Kunesh to get an idea of how much work really goes into these books and how much of a commitment it is to be a part of the Warren yearbook club.

Here is my Q and A with Lauren:

Q:  To give perspective to those unaware of the commitment, how many hours a week do you spend thinking or working on the yearbook?

A:  “Working; We meet 2 hours Monday and 2 hours Thursday, so that’s 4. Over the week I probably spend about 3 hours working on it in my free time, another hour or 2 thinking about it, so probably 8 or 9 hours a week.”

Q:  Was the yearbook club difficult for you at first?
A: Yes, they didn’t really teach me a lot at first; it was a lot of ‘learning as you go’ and I was sort of afraid to ask but now I pretty much know how to do everything.”

Q: Did you realize how much effort making a yearbook would be?
A: “God no, oh my god, it’s so much work. There’s a way to see the hours in the book; Me and Logan Hay [advisor] probably have the most.”

Q: Would you consider the yearbook club as a passion or an obligation?
A: “A passion. I’m really good at graphic design. It came naturally to me in a way. I think of it as something fun I get to do and I enjoy working on it. It makes school fun. It’s nice to be involved in a club”.

Q: How do you manage to balance the yearbook club along with academics, work, and your personal life?
A:  “It’s gotten hard at times when we have a lot to do before a deadline comes up. Last year, we were really behind before a deadline so there was a lot to do and I was very overwhelmed with that on top of being very close to finals but I would make a way for it to happen even if it meant I didn’t sleep that night; I just get it done.”

Q:  Would you agree with the statement that yearbook club members do not get recognized as much as they should?
A:  YES. I didn’t know how much work went into making a yearbook until I joined and I think I just recently had an epiphany of how much time and effort it took from creating the cover, to deciding what finish we want on the cover. It’s a lot of work.

Q:  Can you list any responsibilities you have with the yearbook club?
A:  One of my main responsibilities this year as a senior is definitely designing. Pretty much all of the pages, templates, and collages I designed so other people could just throw photos in there and that takes a lot of time but it’s fun; I like it.

Q:  What section of the yearbook is your favorite to work on and why?
A:  I really liked working on all the dividers, so the ones that say ‘fall sports’, ‘winter sports’, etcetera, because I had total creative freedom with them and made them all look different but yet they still were cohesive and fit with the theme of the book and they’re super cute and fun.”

Q:  How difficult is it to have teams or clubs submit photos or information about their organization to help you create the yearbook?”

A: It depends. Some teams and clubs are on top of it, giving us everything we need and others just don’t respond to us and we have to get the coaches involved, and we’ll still get ignored so they don’t really get the same amount of input into the yearbook, and then they get upset, but they didn’t answer so we did the best we could.

Q: How many teams and clubs do you deal with yearly?
A: I was just kind of putzing around the yearbook room one day and I read on the bulletin board that there were like 80… maybe… but I have no idea.

Q:  Can you give any sneak peaks as to what we should be expecting from the upcoming
yearbook?

A:  We’ve never done anything like this before. It’s really different, but I think people are really gonna like it. It’s very creative.”

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I had the privilege to briefly meet with Mrs. Logan-Hay and ask her a few questions  regarding Lauren Kunesh and the yearbook club.
Q:  Was Lauren always a team leader from the day she joined the yearbook or was it  gradual?”

A: I think it was gradual but quick because at yearbook there’s a learning curve so you have to figure things out first, so it feels very overwhelming at first but once you learn how to do things then you can start teaching other people and so she quickly adapted to that and then she showed that she was consistent with coming [to the meetings] and learning all the skills.

Q:  As an advisor for the yearbook club, what is one of the most enjoyable moments and what is one of the least enjoyable issues you have to deal with?
A:  My most enjoyable thing is the kids and having the meetings and getting to know kids throughout a couple of years and having a final product that we can put up and show and be proud of and our effort being turned into something. And the worst part is when people get their yearbooks and they complain about things in them that we put a lot of time and effort into and they don’t even understand. You know they’re upset because we labeled them as a junior and they’re really a senior, like that is so minor and irrelevant compared to the amount of work we do.”