For years, the GESS Yearbook has been an anticipated publication, containing the many memories of students, teachers and the larger GESS community. We chat with Cadence and Catherine, who signed up for the first run of the GESS Yearbook Editorial CCA to find out what goes on behind producing a publication.
What made you decide to sign up for GESS Yearbook Editorial CCA, given that this is the first time we organised this?
[ Cadence ] I was a new student at GESS when I found out about this CCA. It made me want to try new things by learning how is it like to help make a yearbook for the school.
[ Catherine ] I decided to sign up for the GESS Yearbook Editorial CCA when I learnt that this CCA would have students involved to create one instead of other companies. This caught my eye and made me more intrigued to create a yearbook as this would be my first time learning the process of making yearbooks and how much teamwork and cooperation is needed to produce a book that will mark moments in your school life and give you the feeling of nostalgia when you read it many years later.
Months into this CCA, what has been your most enjoyable session/topic?
[ Cadence ] The most enjoyable session was writing articles and interviewing the Young Scientists. When I found out about them, I wanted to learn more about them such as what they do and what they are hoping to accomplish. I planned my questions in advance and visited them to have a short interview together with one of the scientists.
[ Catherine ] Writing! I really enjoyed writing for the yearbook! Did you know – with some help, I wrote a forward message on the first page of the yearbook! Looking at the yearbook where my writings were published for everyone to see it made me feel proud of myself and thankful for the people who helped me with my writings! I couldn’t help but smile at it every time I read it over and over again because it is like a huge accomplishment for me!
What else would you like to learn from this CCA?
[ Cadence ] I was hoping to learn about taking photos. The yearbook consists of many pictures of students at different events and competitions, together with our class pictures. Pity I did not get the chance to contribute photographs for the yearbook.
[ Catherine ] I was hoping to learn about taking photos and editing them. However, I realised that I needed more skills and knowledge to take photos in a precise way and know more about lighting, timing, technical knowledge and more! So even though these were not the focus in this CCA, I still like learning other things about the yearbook and the whole works.
Is producing a publication what you imagined, or how different is it from what you imagine?
[ Cadence ] Working on a magazine is what I had imagined. Before joining this CCA, I imagined myself interviewing people and writing articles about them.
[ Catherine ] Before joining this CCA, I thought the atmosphere to produce a yearbook would be more rowdy and full off chatters. However, as soon as I joined, I found out that it is quieter than I expected and required deep thinking, planning and giving new ideas to make the yearbook different compared from past years, and to be more engaging for the readers! So I had to brainstorm a lot of creative ideas and write more and more, so that the yearbook doesn’t look like a boring book nobody likes!
What skillsets do you think are required to produce a publication such as a yearbook? And what do you feel you are good in, that will enable you to be a good editor of a publication?
[ Cadence ] Writing and communication are important skillsets when it comes to publishing a yearbook. You will have to write a lot about what you know or research about a topic you have, together with conducting interviews with people and collaborating with your friends. I believe that I am good in both skillsets. These skills allowed me to publish the Young Scientists article.
[ Catherine ] In my opinion, I think the skills required would be teamwork, cooperation, patience, creativity and good writing! Producing a yearbook is not an individual work, it requires many people’s help and collaboration to create one. It is not all about you. You need someone who can help, or you can help others too. Also, how can I forget patience?! Patience is also required as it takes time to produce and publish a yearbook, so even if you get excited, always remember just like how glass requires a lot of time and effort to be created, your yearbook also requires a lot of time and effort to be created too! Everyone likes the vibrant colours of the yearbook and to be engaging and mesmerizing. So, your creativity is also required as we want to see the yearbook different every year! Don’t forget, you will need to write articles and more once you join the Yearbook Editorial CCA. So, I recommend you to have good writing skill, so that it’s easy for you to write without any problem!
Now that you have a deeper perspective of how GESS produces our yearbooks, what would you say to fellow schoolmates who have an interest in getting involved?
[ Cadence ] Being a part of the Yearbook editorial team lets you create your memories of the school year. You’ll also learn how is it like to be a “journalist” at GESS, doing things such as writing articles and publishing them.
[ Catherine ] Why does our yearbook take a long time to publish? Well, if you join the yearbook CCA, you will find out why! We encourage you to unleash your potential and creativity when you join and good luck, because you would need to do some writing!
