Walsworth yearbook representative John Kelly presented a plaque to the yearbook staff recognizing their place in the Gallery of Excellence. A group of Walsworth representatives reviewed all of the 2023 books the company publishes. They look at design, coverage, theme, photography and more. Only about 5 percent of their books are chosen for this recognition.
Yearbook editor-in-chief senior Aspen Magruder was excited to receive the award.
“This was a super big deal for the yearbook because it just shows how hard we all work and that we’re all dedicated to journalism,” Magurder said. “It’s just really exciting for us.”
The yearbook staff works inside and outside of school to complete the yearbook.
“It definitely shows how much some of us put in the dedication and time and delicately plan this out and put our effort into it. I think that award really showed it. I think that this award was really special,” senior Annabelle Smith said.
The yearbook will be shown at state, regional and national levels to yearbooks everywhere to show the Walsworth’s standards of a yearbook. This book will also be shown on their website to showcase their favorite or most impactful pages.
“What we tend to think is that a big school, like a Kansas City School with 400 pages in their books are the only ones that can do good things,” yearbook adviser, Julie Barker said. “This award shows that our small book, we create 144 pages, can do really good things, too.”
While recognition was given to last year’s yearbook, the award remains a motivation for the current yearbook staff.
“We have a lot of new people on staff this year; we have a lot smaller staff this year, so having the new people see we are award-winning and that we can make quality products is really encouraging for them and for the veterans to see,” Magruder said.
With a new editor-in-chief, as well as staff, the yearbook adviser is experiencing new challenges she is certani will help the staff continue to create a quality book.
“In a very good way, Aspen challenges me. I’m a traditionalist, I’ve been doing this for 27 years,” Barker said. “Aspen makes me rethink things, makes me look at things from a different perspective, makes me see how something that I would not have originally liked or thought was good, can be.
The editor and adviser made changes to how staff functions and returners see this as a positive change.“I feel like I can really put in my dedication because we’re not having leaders this year,” Smith said. “I was a leader last year and I would have to stop what I was doing to take care of other people and what they were doing and now I will have full credit on my pages.”
The Walsworth Gallery of Excellence is an important award for the yearbook’s staff. This award shows the staff learned skills necessary to produce quality books, and is one of the highest quality books Walsworth prints.
“I think it’s hard for our school to understand the amount of work that goes into all of our publications, yearbook, newspaper and broadcast. Even with an award like this, which is enormous in the yearbook world, I don’t think anybody understands just how enormous it is,” Barker said.
