Q For readers who are meeting you for the first time, who is Sabrina, inside and outside the journalism classroom?
A Outside the yearbook world, you can usually find me running or shopping. My husband and I just signed up to do the NYC marathon together this fall, my first full marathon! I love fashion. One of my favorite moments was when my first yearbook editor-in-chief was working as a designer at Women’s Health magazine and put me up for a spot as one of the magazine’s “real people” in fashion and they did a page on me in their issue. I love music and singing (former musical theater kid). I am an avid Chipotle fan and literally crave it if I don’t get it at least once a week. Inside the journalism classroom, the best part has and always will be the relationships with students – watching them learn and succeed. When I left the classroom to be a yearbook representative, I was so nervous I would lose the impact on students I had when I was advising. But my yearbook rep and mentor gave me the best advice that I still think about today. She said, “Your reach will be wider, not as deep. You may not get the deep relationships you had in the classroom, but you will impact so many more students, and that’s pretty great.” She was so right.
Q This was formerly the “Ask Mike” column by Mike Taylor, who meant so much to all of us. You’re stepping into a column many advisers relied on for years. What does it mean to you to continue that tradition through the “Sabrina Says” column and your current role with Walsworth as a Journalism Education Strategist?
A I am completely honored and a bit intimidated to continue Mike’s legacy with this column. He was someone who so many advisers looked to and relied on for guidance, coaching and motivation. I hope to be that person for advisers as well. Mike’s biggest passion in yearbook was people. He was a model of the “people over publication” mentality, and I want to follow in his footsteps in that regard.
Q What first pulled you into journalism education?
A I got placed in yearbook my senior year of high school. After three days, I went straight to the guidance counselor and switched out. Yearbook was not for me. I majored in mass communication with a specialization in magazine journalism and loved it. That whole world felt right to me, but I knew what I really wanted to do was teach. When I started teaching, the current adviser left the classroom to take a job at the district office. They “dragged” me into the yearbook classroom. I never left because I fell in love with the whole yearbook world. I remember being exposed to what was possible in yearbook at my first workshop. The creativity, the design, the storytelling – it all felt right again. At its core, yearbook really is magazine style journalism, so it made perfect sense in my mind. Needless to say, I figured out very quickly, yearbook was absolutely for me.
Q What’s one lesson you learned early in your advising career that still guides your decisions now?
A Yearbook is a student-run publication – don’t do it for them! I didn’t know anything about yearbook when I first started, and I relied heavily on my editor-in-chief to show me the ropes. By the start of my second year as adviser, I started to take too much control over the whole process. I remember meeting with someone to do a critique, and I was doing all the talking. The critiquer stopped me and asked to hear from the kids. That opened my eyes to the fact that it is way too easy for advisers to see what needs to be done or see the direction the book needs to move in and do it for them. Being more of a coach – still involved, but with the students doing the work – is how advisers find longevity in the yearbook classroom.
Q What’s the most common struggle you see advisers dealing with right now, and what’s your go-to advice for it?
A “How do I motivate my staff?” is probably the most common question everyone struggles with in some form or another. There is no magical solution (sorry!), but it is really just a combination of a lot of small things that will inevitably make a difference with your staff.
- Advocate to choose who is on yearbook staff. This is a game changer! Athletic teams have try-outs, and the school play has auditions – yearbook should be no different. It is a product that can have a large budget and is visible to the entire community, so it only makes sense to have students working on the yearbook who can make deadlines, take initiative, communicate, write, etc.
- Let the students have ownership of the book. The more students feel the responsibility of this project, the more they will be motivated to direct and complete the book. If they feel like they are just completing tasks or only executing the adviser’s vision for the book and not their own, interest can wane.
- Set yearly goals for improvement. Your goal doesn’t need to be winning state or national recognition, but setting a few goals each year helps give students something to work toward. We all need more lofty goals than “get the book done” to feel truly motivated – “done” cannot be the only goal. Setting small goals to move your book in that direction helps give students a why behind what they are doing.
- Have fun with your yearbook staff. This can feel like an obvious one, but in the day-to-day of the yearbook grind, we can forget that this whole process should be fun! It is too easy to feel the pressure of looming deadlines and forget to play games, goof around a little, make people feel seen and recognized, and celebrate all the wins, even the small ones. Taking mental breaks by playing games or physically moving in some way helps open the mind and can increase creativity and higher-order thinking. I call it “productive procrastination.”
Q If you could sit down with a brand-new adviser on their first day, what would you tell them not to panic about?
A Do not panic about mistakes in the book. All books have errors. Any adviser can tell you tales of errors in their books that drive them crazy but did not change the overall success of the book. No one is saying don’t proofread, but accept that mistakes will happen. Those mistakes will always seem bigger to you than anyone else. So strive for excellence, but don’t panic over small errors. You’ll catch it next time.
Q How do you balance high standards with grace when students are still learning?
A Even though yearbook is a “production class,” it is so important we do not forget the “class” part. High standards and learning don’t have to be mutually exclusive. They work beautifully together when students are given both time and ownership. These ideas help establish high expectations while leaving room for student growth and learning:
- Include students in setting goals for the year. Evaluate last year’s book along with other inspiring yearbooks and have them choose a few things they want to improve upon in the next book. Spend a couple minutes each class reading a compelling story from another book, looking at great photography or admiring unique layouts. This sets a standard of what excellence looks like and inspires them to achieve the same quality of work.
- Start training early. Early training, like summer workshops and Bootcamp, gives students the freedom to experiment and explore a multitude of ideas rather than committing to the first idea that has any potential. But continue that training throughout the year as students are in new cycles of yearbook too.
- Praise in public. Coach in private. Call out outstanding work in class. If you see a catchy headline, make it known. If you are admiring a gorgeous layout, pull that up for the whole class to see. Let them see what really catches your eye as great work so they know what to aspire to.
Q Looking forward, what trends are you excited to see developing within the yearbook community for 2027 and beyond?
A Variety – I love watching yearbooks embrace variety in all forms. We are moving toward a “What is the best way to tell this story?” mindset, and it is so refreshing. Whether it’s a profile, Q&A, full-length feature or first-person narrative, embrace the many ways to tell a story.
If you love yearbook, then you’ll love the full issue of Idea File magazine, available at walsworthyearbooks.com/ideafile. And if you’re interested in finding out more ways Walsworth can help you create a smoother, easier yearbook experience, reach out to your local Walsworth rep.
