Pacifica Stories

At the end of each school year, every student looks forward to the day that they get their yearbooks. From collecting signatures from friends and teachers to searching for their face in group photos to reminiscing on events from the year, it’s a memorable high school experience. However, this scrapbook of portraits and memories doesn’t just appear out of thin air! 

A group of dedicated students spend the year planning, designing, and collaborating to present the student body with a finished product by the end of the year. This year, around eighteen Pacifica students, with members from different grades, are part of the Yearbook Club. Each member is assigned specific pages (typically two to five pages per student) to work on throughout the school year, with different submission deadlines for each page. The club meets monthly to check on progress and work on layout together. Pages in the yearbook cover a myriad of topics, including grade level portraits, sports, clubs, holidays, events, and more. This content is decided by the most important school events of the year, and is also guided by content from previous Pacifica yearbooks.

All of the completed pages are reviewed by the club’s faculty advisor, Mrs. Savage, as well as the editors Javin Woollen (‘25) and Bella Lingel (‘24). This team either sends pages that need edits back to their creators, or completes the edits themselves. When all of the pages have been reviewed and submitted, then the book goes to press!

Yearbook editor Javin Woollen originally became involved in the Yearbook Club because he did photography for his middle school yearbook and continues to enjoy photography and graphic design. 

“My favorite part of this club is the way that each individual who works on it has the freedom to incorporate their own style into the yearbook,” said Javin. “In the end, it is almost a collage of different designs, layouts, and styles.”

Javin’s favorite page that he has created for the yearbook is the PacArts Screen Film Festival page. He’s worked on this page for the last two years, and is making it again for this year’s book. Javin likes working on this page because Screen is one of his favorite school events and he himself has helped on the production of Pacifica films. He is also one of the judges for the student films that are submitted for the festival. His personal involvement with this event has made the creation of the yearbook page more special to put together. Javin hopes that other students who join the yearbook club will learn new skills that are helpful in life, as well as skills to enable fun and creativity.

“I think design is something that can be applied anywhere and it’s good to practice and understand this better.”