Photos are always the best way to preserve a memory. For Upper St. Clair students, a way to have these memories forever is by purchasing a yearbook. Students can always be seen on those last days of school with their yearbook and pen in hand, laughing at the memories and remembering the days of high school. However students don’t tend to realize what happens behind the making of the book, the hours spent in front of a computer, and the chasing around by its members with a camera to catch that perfect shot.

The Yearbook has many components and a long process in order to get the book up and running. Every year, the senior and junior editors of the club attend a convention to plan a theme and learn techniques to make the book the best it can be. They then have meetings with the staff members and divide the work up based on book section.

Nikki Engel, a junior staff member, has found the experience of working on the pages to be very technical. “The program we use with the Jostens Yearbook company is fairly simple, but it’s getting the pictures that’s hardest.” The club relies on submissions by students through the club’s Twitter and the Replay It app. They usually face a lack of pictures and remains with the task to get pictures of each student.

The members take time out of their school day to make sure they can get pictures of each student. Andrew Gianni, one of the senior editors, helps plan in school field trips along with the club sponsors Dave Watson and Erika Valentine. “We have to take time out of our day to get photos of students by using social media and asking permission to use their photos, or we have our staff members go around with cameras and take pictures of students with cameras,” Andrew says.

They also try to make sure they have each student in the Yearbook by using an index found in the back of each book with each student’s name and their page number to make sure they are in the book at least twice.

The club has big plans to improve the book. This year, they are choosing not to follow a theme so that they can focus more on making sure the book has fewer errors and enough photos of each student. This will ensure that students won’t have to see the disappointment of not seeing their name or by only being known in the school year with a student photo.

To submit photos, be sure to download the Replay it app and to send pictures to the clubs twitter @USCHSYEARBOOK