Mesmerized, I watched the yearbook editors design spreads and curate captions from the side table in the yearbook room while I worked on my third grade times tables after my dad, adviser of the Eastern Lebanon County High School Yearbook, the Sigma, picked me up from school. Fast forward nine years later as I move my seat to the Editor-in-Chief's desk that I coveted, submitting our pages to our publisher, Walsworth.

Joining Yearbook Journalism as I felt like I had to join the "family business," I did not realize how much I loved all things journalism until I was living and working in that world filled with creativity and collaboration. I love the rush of writing a story that captures the moment to the euphoric feeling I get once I finish a showstopper spread that took 10 hours to complete from start-to-finish. Yearbook for me simply was not living out dad's job anymore; it was what I was passionate about, and it was something that had all of the aspects I was looking for in a future career.

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Although the pandemic served as a challenge for me and our staff as we were never in the same place at the same time, we managed to overcome our obstacles by giving our best effort and producing a yearbook that won our school's first ever Columbia Scholastic Press Association Crown Finalist Award and National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker Finalist Award, meaning that our publication was one of the top 60 yearbooks in the entire country.

Now a student at Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State University Park to receive my B.A. in Advertising, I contribute my love of communications, copywriting, and design to Yearbook, and I look forward to building upon my skills to share my love of communications with the world. Third grade, aspiring-yearbooker me would be proud of how far I have come with storytelling--both visually and verbally--and the journey I will continue to embark on in the future.