Higley High yearbook program a success story

Higley High junior Karissa Giangregorio was going to drop out of school until she discovered the school's yearbook class her sophomore year.

Now, she said school is "exciting."

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"Yearbook's my life," said Giangregorio, the yearbook's co-editor-in-chief. "When thinking about coming to school, I think of yearbook. This is what kept me in school. And half my wardrobe is yearbook clothes."

Her testimony shows what makes Higley's award-winning yearbook classes special, and students are clamoring to sign up.

This year's three classes and 70 students will be trumped by next year's five classes, making Higley's yearbook program the largest in the state, said yearbook adviser and English teacher Jennifer Wojtulewicz, known as WoJo by her students.

"When I started three years ago, we had one yearbook class with 16 students," Wojtulewicz said. "I think kids now see the yearbook and say they want to be a part of it."

Last year's yearbook received a third-place award from the Journalism Education Association and National Scholastic Press Association.

Higley senior Lorraine Ramirez this year received an "excellent" rating in computer layout design, and senior Lenita Shamsiddeen won an "excellent" rating for her layout design.

Ramirez said she learned how to image photos and how to design yearbook pages. Now, she wants to change her career plans to incorporate the design she learned in class.

Shamsiddeen said she learned how to take a design in a magazine she likes and emulate it on the pages of the yearbook.

The school district recognized that the students were learning more than just writing and photography, and next year the yearbook will be moved out of the English program and into vocational classes, Wojtulewicz said.

Besides the cool things the students say they are learning, yearbook is known as a different club than any other on campus.

Junior Ashley Morris said she's in video production and cheer, and nothing compares to yearbook.

"This class prepared me for stuff out of high school more than any other class," Morris said. "I'm learning journalism, the responsibility of meeting deadlines and photography."

The students are busy preparing for Wednesday's yearbook signing party and can't wait to share the new yearbook with students. This year, for the first time, it's all in color.

The mock-up of this year's book received a "superior" rating at the annual San Diego Yearbook Tech. Higley was one of five in the region of about 50 high schools that received the rating.

The students also won second place in "spirit," and it's no doubt the students are a crazy, wacky bunch.

They have a singing act they like to perform, including at a recent school board meeting. At last month's yearbook convention in Anaheim, the group decided to have a talent show, and changed the words around to several songs to sing about their love for yearbook.

The students proudly say they don't mind being called nerds. They consider themselves a "special kind of nerd."

Photo editor Claire Broucek, a Higley junior, said the yearbook's photographers are busy throughout the year documenting everything on campus, from sports games and dances to school performances and meetings.

"Our job is after school," said Broucek, estimating the students spend 10 to 12 hours a week after school and on weekends working on the yearbook.

"It's like we stay after school for school, and we like it," Morris said.