Apopka High school offers many great electives and classes, one of these being Yearbook. Yearbook is a class where students come in, take photos for the yearbook, and help put it together. The class is taught by Ms. Kelley and is a branch of Journalism. The Blue and White asked Ms. Kelley and 5 of her amazing students what they do in Yearbook and why they like it.

We asked Ms. Kelley what she enjoys most about teaching Yearbook? She responded “I like teaching Yearbook because it is a chance to create something that everyone can hopefully enjoy for many years beyond their time in high school. I also get the chance to meet and get to know a lot of students outside of just my own rosters.”When asked how she and the students come up with the yearbook themes, she explained, “Editors and I look at books from our publisher, we do google searches, and brainstorm with our representative from Herff Jones and a graphic designer.” For those interested in joining Yearbook, we asked, how do you select your students for Yearbook? “Applications and stellar teacher recommendations. The most important thing is that the applicant is capable of sticking to strict deadlines, everything else I can teach,” says Ms. Kelley. The last question we asked was if there are any challenges to having the yearbooks published. She responded with, “Keeping track of everything and getting people to respond.”

Next we talked to Senior Kaylee Rheinschmidt. Kaylee explained her reason for joining Yearbook, saying, “My sister and cousins did yearbook here in high school and they loved it so I wanted to do it too.” Kaylee described her responsibilities in Yearbook, saying, “I am an editor and I help create layouts and edit pages.” Kaylee went on to share that,“Ms. Kelley is my favorite part about yearbook because she is someone that I have been able to rely on the last couple of years.”

After Kaylee, we went to ask Junior Hailey Odell about what made her want to join Yearbook. She said that “Ms. Kelley, was my freshman journalism teacher, and I enjoyed being a part of her class. It also looks good on college applications.” When asked what she enjoys most about Yearbook, Hailey explains,“I enjoy working together with the class, taking pictures at school events, and being in Ms. Kelley’s class.” Hailey shared some challenges she encountered while taking the class, “Writing captions and caption starters, they not only go together and [they] go with the pictures,” said Hailey.

Junior Kylee Schutt was next in line for questions. We started by asking her what made her want to join yearbook and why. She responded, “I wanted to join yearbook so I felt a part of the Apopka community and was able to be more involved in the school.” We asked Kylee to describe the class, “We take photos, and then write about what is happening in those photos but more importantly we build bonds and we all create like a little family.” The final question we had for Kylee was, What do you like best about yearbook? She stated that, “I like how everyone gets along and everyone’s opened to new ideas and new experiences.”

Junior Ava Boyden was the next choice for questioning. We asked her why she wanted to join Yearbook, “I joined Yearbook because I wanted to be involved in creating something that we can all look back on after High School,” stated Ava. She explains that “We each get assigned a spread that we dedicate our time [into] creating, and I enjoy doing it.” We asked Ava about the challenges of the class “Meeting deadlines and staying on top of work is sometimes challenging but well worth it.”

Sophomore Natalia Carmona was the last student The Blue and White interviewed. We asked her what made her want to join Yearbook “I thought it would be fun and I wanted to try something new.” Natalia enjoys that “We go to all the events at the school and take pictures. We then choose what pictures we’re gonna use and start making our spreads. Yes, I do [enjoy it], it’s a really fun class.” The last question we asked Natalia was, after joining Yearbook, is there anything you didn’t expect about the class? She responded, “I didn’t expect it to be as simple because the way the class is set up the editors create the rough draft of the spread and that makes it easier when putting in the pictures and captions.”

Yearbook is one of the many amazing electives and experiences here at Apopka, as shown above. If you’re interested in taking photos and also writing, maybe Yearbook is the class for you.