BY ALEX BANKS

On September 28, the Wadsworth High School yearbook staff went to Elyria High School for their first field trip since Autumn of 2019. 

Every member of the staff had the opportunity to go on the trip if they had their field trip form signed and turned in. There are 13 members that are part of the staff this year and all of them were able to go on the trip. 

They left school at the end of second period and returned to school in the middle of eighth period. 

They order their yearbooks through Jostens and they have a program called Yearbook Avenue and Layout Pro, which is a workshop to show them things that they might not normally be aware of in their yearbooks. 

While they were there, they got to do a variety of things to help them learn how to enhance Wadsworth’s future yearbooks, such as marketing and planning. They were also able to exchange ideas with other yearbooks and learn from each other. 

“[The part that was most beneficial was] the ideas that we were able to get from other people and from the other yearbooks, when they were showing examples of really great pages, a lot of people had new ideas and we’re going to try and incorporate new page ideas so that we can get more inclusive coverage and include more people in the book than we have,” said Mrs. Laura Harig, advisor of the yearbook. “That’s our goal this year, to get more people in the book.”

To begin their time there, they listened to a presenter who taught them about different yearbook layouts. The staff learned that sometimes less can be more in a layout and that having a big picture or a burst of color can be more beneficial in drawing attention to a page instead of just having a lot of pictures. 

“It is important to not have every page look alike, but still have a connecting theme throughout them, in order to help draw attention,” said Sienna Lucci, sophomore and member of the yearbook staff. 

Then, they learned how to diversify their yearbooks. During this, they learned about how they should incorporate a more diverse group of people and how they should strive to represent everyone at Wadsworth High School. 

“We want to make sure that every single person in the school is represented, and not just the typical people who you would see in the yearbook each year,” Lucci said. 

Finally, they got to do a project where they learned how to pose people for photos in a way that would make them comfortable. To practice doing this, they got to take pictures of each other and while trying different poses. 

“I think that my favorite part had to be when we tried out different poses on each because it was really funny to do with each other but overall still a really fun learning experience,” Lucci said.

Typically, the yearbook staff takes this trip every year but this was disrupted due to COVID. They normally go on the Jostens trip during the Fall and then throughout the year a Jostens representative will come to them to answer their questions and help them out. 

They are hoping to return next year and go back to their routine of going every Autumn for Jostens.