YEARBOOK
Photos by Katherine Lacaze
Seaside High School students from left, Rain Cannon, Taj Goeringer and Emma Harch work
on designing pages for the 2019-20 edition of the high school’s yearbook, Seabreeze.
Students in the first term of instructor Amy Rider’s yearbook class pose outside of the
college building where they meet to plan, develop and design the Seabreeze each school
year.
For Yearbook Club, life is a ‘Seabreeze’
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
The students who are part of the year-
book class at Seaside High School take on
the responsibility of not only carefully doc-
umenting each school year but also learn-
ing the ins and outs of running a viable
enterprise.
“This is a class where, when they grad-
uate, they’ll have actual marketable skills
they’ve developed over four years,” said
Amy Rider, who instructs the class for the
high school’s yearbook, Seabreeze.
Each school year, the yearbook class runs
all three terms. Not all students involved in
the program, however, can attend the whole
year. Some will take the class only one or
two trimesters but still help out in between
with covering events, interviewing fellow
students, and other pertinent tasks.
“Everyone has their different path,”
junior Kiara Breckenridge, the current edi-
tor-in-chief, said.
During the first term, about 20 stu-
dents were enrolled in the class, which is
a significant increase from Breckenridge’s
freshman year, when the yearbook was put
together by a group of about six dedicated
students.
8 • Seagull Pride • Winter 2019-20
Student works on design and layout for the
Seabreeze.
Leading the way
Rider appoints the editor in chief each
year based on seniority, in addition to lead-
ership skills, maturity and reliability. This
year, that was Breckenridge.
In eighth grade, when looking at high
school classes, she was intrigued by year-
book and the opportunity to write copy,
learn page design, and do photography. She
started her freshman year and worked her
way through the ranks, taking on the roles of
photo editor and sports editor along the way.
Now, as editor in chief, it’s her job to
assign tasks and guide the project from start
to finish.
“I’m a Type A kind of person, so I like
being able to teach new students,” she said.
Although Rider and Breckenridge would
not reveal the theme of this year’s Seabreeze
— which is traditionally concealed until the
yearbooks are distributed on the last day of
school — they said they are changing it up
a bit. Instead of the traditional format, which
divides the yearbook into sections based
on categories, such as sports, classes, and
dances, they are laying it out chronologi-
cally. They hope this will create more of a
narrative feel.
“We’re trying to tell our story,” Brecken-
ridge said, attributing the idea to Rider. “She
wanted to try something new.”
How to run a business
To jumpstart the yearbook design pro-
cess, Rider takes a few students to a camp in
Salem each summer. There they glean ideas
and inspirations for design styles, formats,
color schemes, and more.
Once the year starts, the workload for
students ebbs and flows. Breckenridge said
they are especially busy from September to
November, covering sports and activities
and getting the school pictures organized.
They also work on collecting ad sales to help
finance the program.
According to Rider, the yearbook pro-
gram functions similar to a business. As a
standalone program, they don’t get funding
from the school and are required to manage
their own budget. Since they sell the year-
books below cost to students, they rely on ad
sales to sustain the enterprise. Fortunately,
Breckenridge said, they find ample commu-
nity support year after year.
“We sell really well in ads, because there
are a lot of businesses that support (the
school),” she said.
While the students bear a big responsibil-
ity striving to keep the program financially
sound, it teaches them important life skills in
return, Rider said. They learn how to make
connections with local businesses, commu-
nicate professionally with potential spon-
sors, and interview strangers, along with cre-
ative skills, like photography, copywriting,
and page design using computer software.
“It’s really fun,” Breckenridge said.