Earning gold in the Jostens National Yearbook Program of Excellence is no small feat, yet the Pilot Point Middle School yearbook staff has now earned that honor three times in a row.
Yearbook sponsor and teacher Andrea Perez described how grateful she is for the work her students pour into the publication year after year to make it valuable to the school community.
“It puts a lot of excitement into the program,” Perez said about the third gold in a row. “Kids now want to be part of yearbook. They’re excited to be part of yearbook. We had the most applicants we’ve ever had this year. … It’s exciting to me that a program that really didn’t matter to most people is now one of the toprequested classes in the district.”
Perez also prizes the chance to teach the students life skills that will extend beyond their time with her.
“Any class you’re in, especially in elementary school, high school, middle school, your goal is just develop great kids,” she said. “… Yes, they’re here to learn, but you’re developing a great kid and these are life lessons that I want them to carry on, that deadlines are important. Doing what you’re supposed to do is important, and especially working with a team, you have to be able to rely on each other.”
She added that she loves not only teaching the students the skills but also refining them herself to be a better mentor throughout the pro- cess.
“I’m becoming better as an adviser through them,” she said.
Perez has been the sponsor for the program for all three wins, and Jostens representative Blake Ahrens is confident she and her students are on track for a fourth gold.
“She does an amazing job,” he said. “To come in year one and win it and then win it Year 2, and then to have your staff get it [again]-the three-peat is far and few between.”
To earn gold, the staffs have to meet every deadline, include pictures at least half of the student body three times or more, and sell to 70% of the school population or increase sales by 2%.
The requirements for the program are rigorous, Ahrens added, and it’s not easy to hit every mark that applies for all schools from elementary through high school so consistently.
“Not a lot of schools even get two in a row,” he said. “It just goes to show how good of a program Andrea is running because she’s passionate about it.”
PPMS Principal Taylor Penn said he’s proud of the excellent program Perez has built.
“It’s good to see that all the hard work and effort that she pours into her students and her program is paying off,” he said. “… She’s really kind of started a tradition here.”
Although the program is open to both seventh and eighth graders, the majority of Perez’s staffs are eighthgrader heavy, which means training a largely new staff each year.
Only one of her current staff members was part of the most recent gold-winning staff during seventh grade, and there is only one seventh grader on this staff.
“It’s nice to find somebody’s groove, somebody’s thing,” Perez said, adding that Kihara Madrid on her current staff had her photo selected for a Jostens advertisement and one of her former students Ofori Obeng is continuing his photography and videography on social media.
Perez brought several members of the staff that earned gold back to Pilot Point Middle to celebrate their accomplishment, including Amy Hinojosa and Peyton Hendricks.
Hinojosa found that she enjoyed covering action-filled assignments.
“The field days, the pep rallies,” she said. “… I really like taking the photos and using the camera.”
She’s hoping to be part of yearbook next year at high school, and she said Perez taught her focus as well as photography.
For Hendricks, being part of yearbook helped her feel plugged into the PPMS community that she also hopes to experience at the high school and she learned the value of meeting deadlines.
“It’s a good opportunity to just be involved with the school,” she said. “… We had a lot of great memories.”
She added that she enjoyed not only taking the photos but also “being able to make the page.”
“Seeing people look at and like the photos,” was a cool experience, she added.
The connection to her students continues, too, thanks to the work they put into their publication year after year.
“I do have a lot of strong bonds with these kids, and when I see them outside of school, I see the love that they still have for photography, and that’s important,” Perez said.
