The inspiration for the book comes from aspirations and alliteration, resulting in “The Epitome of Excellence.”
Woodrow Wilson High School’s ECHO yearbook has officially sold out! To create the finalized edition of the 2023/2024 “Epitome of Excellence,” adviser, Mrs. Ashley Smith and the Echo staff utilized Picatvo software. Logging just over 2,500 hours, the class spent much time in the three phases of editing. Mrs. Smith herself dedicated 693 hours on the program, finalizing corrections. These calculations did not include the time spent on interviews, photo assignments, and fundraising.
In addition to student portraits, this year’s yearbook consists of student features. Student features are placed with a photograph and quote, separated from the traditional class photo. Approximately, a total of 571 students were featured of Woodrow’s 1,258 population. Smith shares, “our goal was 50 percent [of students], we hit 45 percent.” As upholding to tradition, seniors and junior photos were the most prominent. 58% of the graduating class was recognized, with 51% of juniors. Wanting to add more diversity in the pages, a limit on how many times someone could be pictured within the portfolio was present.
Increasing sales from the previous school year by 25 books, this year’s book has been quite popular. Before preorders were finalized, all 425 available copies were bought. Any un-purchased book would have resulted in the loss of resources for the yearbook team, with just ten yearbooks discrediting the account by $620. Incentives of purchase included revealing pages on Instagram and distributing informational flyers. “I really wanted to convey that this book goes a lot deeper in telling the story than in years past,” adds Smith.
While stressful at times, the group admits to having great fun, commenting that their favorite part of the process was getting to better understand their fellow Eagles through a creative outlet. With pride in her eyes, Mrs. Smith states, “being in a leadership capacity and also the creative aspect of the book was really fun.”
