As the end of the school year approaches, so too does the reveal of the yearbook, whose design has been a mystery to everyone except those working on it. However, earlier this year those yearbook club members had a surprise of their own: the club’s honorable mention in the annual Walsworth Yearbooks competition.

“It was an honor to be chosen,” club adviser and math teacher Gretchen Koles said about the 2023 competition. 

Walsworth is one of the top three yearbook publishing companies in the country. Every year, the company compiles the most noteworthy designs into a book it then gives to the schools involved. Branson’s last yearbook was included for its outstanding design.

“The cover was amazing,” Drew Wilkinson ‘24, one of the yearbook editors, said. He described the 80s-themed book as “beautiful, polished and clean.” 

Wilkinson attributed much of the club’s success to the previous year’s editors, Paloma Rincon ‘23 and Elizabeth Kushulevsky ‘23.

“It was mostly the senior editors who did the theming for it and a lot of the hard work,” he said. 

Rincon and Kushulevsky applied their skills in art and graphics to create a visually stunning design.

“Their senior year yearbook design won this award,” Koles said. “Hopefully they know how much the whole community celebrates their accomplishment.”

The award did not go unappreciated by current club members. 

“It came at a perfect time when we were losing steam a little bit on the yearbook,” Wilkinson said. The award served as a final push of motivation for the club to finish out the year strong. 

“We took the lessons that [the previous editors] learned last year,” he said. “A good piece of advice from them was to keep the yearbook easy and keep it so that everyone can contribute.”

Koles said that the yearbook is about connection, be that connection among club members, connection among the school as a whole or connection between the past and future. The yearbook, she said, is a historical document. 

“A hundred years from now, when we’re all gone, people are going to be looking back at these and going, ‘Oh, wow, this was what it was like in this day and age.’”

“It’s really about reminiscing on the year,” Wilkinson said. “You want to see the people you loved and the people who helped you along the way.” 

Planning for next year’s yearbook has already begun as club members discuss potential themes.

Koles said, “I encourage everybody who wants to come out for the yearbook to come on out.”