Welcome back everyone!
Today I am going to be covering everything that happened on my second day of yearbook camp at Chapman University. If you haven’t already read my post discussing the first day of camp, make sure to check that out now! I returned home yesterday, and I can confidently say this camp was one of the best experiences I’ve had and it taught me so much about yearbook. This is my first year being a part of yearbook and my first time doing anything journalism-related, so there’s definitely a learning curve.
The second day of camp (Saturday, July 20th) had a Disney character theme. Each day had a different spirit/dress-up theme, and everyone on our staff dressed accordingly since at the opening session each day there were spirit prizes up for grabs. My roommate and I had set our alarms for 7:00am since breakfast started at 7:15 and we didn’t mind going a little bit later; we woke up and put on our Disney outfits! Our editor-in-chief had come up with the idea to do Snow White and the 7 (13) Dwarfs, so we all had nametags and hats.
Everyone met up at breakfast; I had three small waffles, some scrambled eggs, and a mini blueberry muffin. Everything was pretty good, but I definitely missed my fresh berries I always eat at home. After eating, we met with our teacher/adviser in the common room so we could all head to the opening ceremony at Memorial Hall together. There were some spirit games and announcements- someone lost their wallet, and the workers made them come up on stage and dance in order to get it back. We sadly didn’t win the spirit award, but we didn’t expect to because there were definitely some crazy spirited schools out there.
Our first class of the day began at 9:15am; it was broken up into two hour-long sessions with a 15 minute break in the middle. Throughout the two hours, we worked on our first design layout (on paper, not the computers just yet) and took notes on lots of design and photography terms. The building my class was in happened to be right next to the on-campus Starbucks, so as soon as the break began my friend and I ran there in order to beat the rush. We got caramel macchiatos for a caffeine boost; it was my first time trying one and it was delicious!! We headed back to class for another hour and then got dismissed for lunch.
Lunch was an hour and 45 minutes, so there was no rush to eat. My friend and I sat outside to soak up the sun since the weather was perfect that day. I ate cheese pizza and salad- it was pretty good, the vegetables actually tasted decently fresh. Since we still had so much time, we stopped back at the dorms to freshen up and then decided to go on a walk around campus. We asked my roomie/other friend if she wanted to come but she was more in the mood to relax, so the two of us headed out alone to explore. It was actually extremely nice; we took the long way around and ended up stopping to sit on a bench in the shade and just talk/catch up. We were also very close to our class, so we had no trouble getting there when it was time to finally go.
The class was divided into two sessions with a fifteen minute break again, but this time each session was an extra fifteen minutes longer as well. We edited the spreads we had made on paper with the help of our instructor and learned more about photography. We also touched on writing and wrote some sample captions; the instructor read mine out loud to the class because she liked it, so that was pretty cool! Class let out at 4:15 and then we headed to another theme development session with the rest of our members. Our editorial staff and our adviser were in a computer lab in the library starting to work on spreads for the theme packet (something you submit to the camp regarding your ideas for this year’s book and get judged on) and all of us newbies didn’t have anything to do, so some of the returning members that didn’t have huge responsibilities started teaching us how to use our design program. We use Adobe InDesign, and it’s actually so interesting and fun using it. I still haven’t completely gotten the hang of it, but it’s not too hard to pick up.
Learning to use InDesign was the highlight of my day; it was also fun because one of the returning members was explaining to me and my friend how to use it, and he was extremely funny. The three of us were just chatting and laughing the whole time. About an hour later it was time for dinner, so we all packed up and went to the dining hall as a group. I had pasta and chicken with more of their signature chocolate-chip cookies. Next we had classes again, but this time they were elective sessions (more like lectures) where we had options to choose from, rather than more sessions of our one selected class. My friends and I ended up choosing a class called Looking For the Right Photos that discussed a combination of photography and design; we didn’t learn much, but the instructor was extremely funny. He just talked about what types of photos to put in your spreads and how you should be taking lots of different photos from unique angles to have more options.
We didn’t feel like going to a second elective session since we knew all of our editorial staff and our adviser were working in the computer lab again on the theme packet, so we randomly just chose to go to Yearbook Hacks when our adviser insisted we pick something. The instructor discussed lots of random topics, from staff bonding to refund policies to marketing. It seemed more like a class for advisers, but there were tons of other students there so it wasn’t our mistake or something in attending. Class let out at 8:50 and there was going to be another spirit-related event in Memorial Hall at 9:00, but our adviser had us skip it and head to the library computer lab. All of the newbies (me included) played around with InDesign more while the veterans designed spreads for the theme packet and got actual work done. I felt bad seeing them all stressed out while there was no way for us to contribute.
The lab closed at 9:30 so we all walked back to the dorm together. The returning members that were still working on the theme packet (mainly the three EICs and a couple other designers) stayed in the common area with our adviser while everyone else had nothing to do but relax and get ready for bed. I hung out with some of the other newbies and then returned to my room to watch some YouTube videos and shower. My roomie was one of the designers working on spreads so she came in around 11:30 and quickly showered and got ready for bed as well. We talked again for a while and just discussed how fun (but crazy!) camp had been so far- we were basically zombies at this point- and finally went to bed around 12:00 (I fell asleep straight away!).
I hope you enjoyed hearing about more of my experiences at camp, and I highly encourage you to check out my post about the first day there if you haven’t! I will be posting about the third and fourth day at camp very soon, so make sure to look out for that too. It was such an amazing experience and completely opened my eyes to how much work actually goes into making a yearbook- if you guys are interested in me making more yearbook-related content as the year goes on, please let me know!
-Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 