The Evergreen yearbook staff’s efforts in the production of the 2024 yearbook paid off as they were awarded the Interscholastic League Press Conference’s “Bronze Star” award at the ILPC Spring Convention.

“It felt good to get that award,” junior Savannah Villareal said. “Last year’s yearbook didn’t have the best circumstances, but we still created it – and it was definitely award-winning.”

The creation of the yearbook was met with challenges last year; the yearbook staff was understaffed, and delays from the yearbook company thwarted the distribution of the books. Despite these issues, their perseverance and dedication was key for the book’s success. 

“We had a staff of like five people by the end of the year,” junior James Rahman said. “All of us lost a lot of sleep on that book, but we were able to pull through.”

Rahman was the editor-in-chief for the yearbook last year, pushing for a unique style that hadn’t been seen in past yearbooks. The staff went all-out with a creative theme, utilizing an aggressive set of graffiti-like fonts and colors they felt matched best with the student body.

“My students particularly wanted the book to be messy, kind of grungy,” advisor Lisette Hewitt said. “The two previous yearbooks had been really clean and sharp.”

By steering away from expectations, the uniqueness of the yearbook and the outstanding efforts from the staff made the final product appealing to the judges.

“The fact that we were able to carry the theme throughout the book is what really made it stand out,” Hewitt said. “We took a risk, and it ended up paying off.”

The challenges faced during production taught valuable lessons, but the staff’s persistent resilience resulted in a yearbook that not only succeeded, but stood out from the crowd.

“The 2024 yearbook was definitely untraditional… it just stood out,” Villareal said. “It was like the start of a new era.”