The beginning of the school year is an exciting time for yearbook staffs. Photographers rushing around from senior activities to fall sports tryouts, editors pitching their themes and new staffers just trying to take it all in. As an adviser, you don’t want staffers’ fundamental skills to slip through the cracks.
Summer workshops help with this. By giving students concentrated time to learn, practice and collaborate before school begins, workshops help staffs build momentum before the year begins.
One example of a summer workshop is The Jayhawk Media Workshop, hosted at the University of Kansas June 7-10. Over four days, students attended small-group classes, learned from experienced journalism educators and worked on real projects while building relationships with peers from across the region.
While every workshop looks different, programs like JMW demonstrate the value of summer yearbook time. For yearbook staffs, some of the biggest benefits included theme development, hands-on learning opportunities, team building and exposure to college journalism programs.
Theme Development
Workshops give editors time to focus on theme development before presenting it to the whole staff at the start of the year – one of the most valuable benefits. Retired Shawnee Mission Northwest adviser Susan Massy helped schools at JMW develop their theme, from finding the perfect verbal to locking down a theme logo.
Olathe East High School senior, Oliver Yeung took the theme development class.
“Before camp started, we only had an idea of what we wanted our visuals throughout the book to look like,” Yeung said. “Once camp ended, we had our entire theme package mostly finished, and we just need to tweak some small things to have it ready for the staff to work on.”
Students entered the workshop with varying levels of preparation. Some arrived with only a rough concept, while others had already begun building spreads. Regardless of where they started, students left with stronger ideas, personalized feedback from experienced instructors and clear next steps.
Blue Valley Northwest High School senior Avery Davenport, said she enjoyed the collaborative nature of the theme class.
“Because we were in the class with other students, we were able to all bounce ideas off of each other, and it was a really supportive and collaborative environment,” Davenport said. “Susan Massy also gave us advice for the upcoming school year outside of the theme, like classroom management, grading systems and ways to keep our staff motivated throughout the year.”
This type of early progress significantly reduces stress at the start of the year for advisers and staffs. Instead of spending the first several weeks brainstorming themes, teams can move straight into production.
Hands on Learning
Beyond theme development, JMW and many other summer workshops offer classes in leadership, writing and editing, multimedia, publication design, photography and advising. Students and advisers alike can learn something new regardless of experience or area of interest. So what connects each class? Students learn by doing.
Retired Blue Valley Northwest High School adviser Jim McCrossen led the photography group. After checking out cameras from the KU journalism school resource center, students began practicing technical skills on night one.
Throughout the week, photographers captured a variety of subjects, including the engineering school’s race cars, Jayhawk Men’s Basketball practice, studio portraits and life across campus.
Their final assignment was a free choice photo story. This encouraged students to take initiative and put their skills to the test in a way that best served the story they wanted to tell, mirroring the storytelling element of yearbook photography.
The multimedia class took a similarly practical approach. Led by Olathe South adviser Heather Springer, students managed content for the workshop’s Instagram account.
The multimedia class created video and carousel posts covering everything from daily lunch recaps to weather updates to student highlights.
Summer is the perfect time to train up your social media team because having a strong foundation provides a head start on your marketing efforts going into the school year. Need a place to start? Check out our Social Media Calendar for a day-by-day breakdown of what to post to engage your school community and market your yearbook on your socials.
Team Building and Networking
Workshops teach more than technical skills. They facilitate early team bonding opportunities to strengthen staff culture. When students spend a week working together, they get to know one another and start to understand what their working dynamic will look like going into the school year.
“Anytime one of our editors walked by, we encouraged them to come and see the progress we had made on the theme,” Davenport said. “I think it really helped them feel included and gave them some agency in the theme development.”
Outside of class time, staffs gathered in their full groups and continued to build these relationships.
“We always ate lunch together, we went on walks and at night, we would all go to one person’s dorm room and either work or talk,” Davenport said. “It was so valuable to get to know my editor team better, it really made camp a lot of fun.”
In addition to getting closer with their school’s staff, campers also made friends with yearbook students from other schools. Workshops give journalists perspective by seeing books and workflows from other programs from across the region.
“My favorite part was meeting people from all over Kansas and some other states,” Yeung said. “It’s great networking to see what other schools have been working on and being able to help everyone out. I also love how friendly everyone is at camp. It’s not often you are able to see people from other schools – especially when you are rivals – work together.”
College Life
Many summer workshops also give students an opportunity to experience college life. At JMW, campers stayed in residence halls, explored campus and balanced classwork with social activities. Students gain independence, confidence and life skills in this new environment.
Summer workshops create opportunities for high school students to imagine their life after graduation, gaining an immersive look at majoring in journalism, communications and other degree areas. It helps students understand how the skills they develop in yearbook apply to college and future careers.
The value of JMW extended far beyond the camp itself. Students returned to school with new skills, clear goals, stronger staff bonds and excitement for the year ahead.
Whether your staff is refining its theme, training up your editors, developing new staffers or creating your social media brand, summer workshops create opportunities for meaningful growth before the school year begins.
For advisers looking to give their students a head start, summer workshops set your staff up for success. Looking for workshop opportunities going into the school year and for next summer? Check out our events page, sign your editors up for an Elite Weekend and talk to your rep about what summer workshops would be best for your team.
