Rock Island High School’s 2020 Yearbook Named One of the Best in Nation
Out of thousands of entries, the Rock Island High School 2020 yearbook was recently recognized as one of the best yearbooks in the nation — the second year in a row that Rocky’s yearbook staff has received this honor.
Herff Jones, a division of Varsity Brands and the leading provider of graduation and educational products announced its “best-of”
The cover of RIHS’ winning 2020 yearbook, “Home is Here.”
publication, Portfolio, which showcases best-in-class yearbook work from students across North America.
Rocky was among 413 schools that were chosen across multiple categories. The yearbooks were judged by an independent company that consists of industry experts on various design and storytelling elements – from themes to covers to features. RIHS was chosen as one of the best for overall work and was selected to be in the portfolio for its cover.
Sarah Miers, a Rocky teacher and the yearbook advisor, said being selected for the Herff Jones’ Portfolio for a second time is a huge milestone for the program.
“I’m very excited that the yearbook program was awarded this honor for the second year,” she said of the 40 students that work annually on the 200-page book. “The journalism students work very hard to tell the story of our school each year, and I’m glad their efforts and creativity were recognized, especially with such challenging conditions over last year and a half.”
“I think the kids are always really excited. It’s not something that they would expect at all,” Miers said Tuesday of the national award. “I think it kind of boosts their confidence and their pride in their work. It’s always neat just to see the yearbook come in and see that copy for the first time, but then to have another group recognize the kids’ work is
Rock Island yearbook advisor Sarah Miers (in back) with journalism students (from left) Marte McKinney, Kara Baumunk, Sarah Stevanovic, and Soe Paw.
also really cool for them and definitely a boost.”
Herff Jones considers a wide variety of areas for school yearbooks (from junior high through college) to be recognized.
“Sometimes books do some really interesting things like last year, we got awarded for our cover as well, but it was for the innovations category because we had a mini varsity letter on our book,” Miers said. “So this year we were just in the cover category. So there there’s a bunch of different categories.”
The 2020 yearbook cover says “Home is Here,” “which is kind of funny since we ended up being sent home for the end of the school year earlier than we thought,” she said of the Covid pandemic in mid-March 2020, cutting short in-person instruction through the fall.
“So it wasn’t intentional. We didn’t, you know, think about that when we started it,” Miers said. “The cover had a cut-out that where it says ‘here,’ it shows through to a big aerial picture of the original front of the school.”
Fortunately, work on the 2020 yearbook was completed when Covid hit last year, and didn’t impact its publication, she noted. The 2020 graduating seniors were able to get their copies before commencement last year, though photos of certain sports and activities, had to be held over for the 2021 book, which is still in production, Miers said.
“We were lucky last year because the book that we were recognized for was actually produced, we finished it right as everything was shutting down,” she said. “We were really lucky last year that we got the book done before everything shut down. And so this book was made by some of our current seniors, with all of the kids who graduated and didn’t really get an end to their senior year. So I know those kids are really proud of this book.”
“This year, we are almost done with our yearbook. But we spent our first semester, basically, virtual with a couple of exceptions for some sports and then we had a very brief time back in the building,” Miers said of the fall 2020 semester.
“A lot of my kids this year had to do the entire yearbook program online, which I know was a challenge,” she said. “It’s hard for them to go out and get interviews and have a kid’s picture to go with their interview. I think we had to reschedule pictures a few times because of
The Rocky students were honored for the second straight year by Herff Jones, the yearbook printing company.
different restrictions. We’re accepting selfies for yearbook pictures for the first time.”
“Then second semester, as we’ve gotten to kind of come back a little bit more, it’s been a bit easier to get these pages done,” Miers said. “But my kids, I mean, I have to give them a lot of credit for trying to put a yearbook together when we’re all at home because I know that has to be a very difficult job.”
The 2021 yearbook still is of comparable length to the 2020 book, despite changes due to Covid, such as virtual performances for theater and music – which required use of many Zoom photos, she said.
“There were small groups sometimes that were able to meet for different small events, but it definitely took a lot of kind of hunting down pictures from a bunch of different people to try and really cover everything that our kids did just because it was so much different,” Miers said.
“And again, thankfully, our advisors were very creative in how they could still keep the clubs active,” she said. “And those teachers who ran the clubs are also very generous and would be willing to share pictures with me of everything, but we have quite a few Zoom pictures this year in the book that we haven’t had before. We have a lot of kids, often pictured practicing their instruments at home instead of in the band room, or things like that.”
Miers said she will also submit this year’s book for the awards. “I’ll submit it — whether it gets recognized, you know, who knows?” she said. “I’m proud of it but I don’t know. We were lucky enough to win the last two years. But it’s a good yearbook, so I’ll certainly submit it. The kids worked hard on it.”
Since the 2020 yearbook was done in March, the graduating seniors were able to get it by graduation. This year, they will be including spring sports and activities, and will finish it in June, to be ready for pickup by the fall, Miers said.
While last year’s commencement was virtual, with an outdoor component, the 2021 commencement will be in person (with limited guests allowed) on June 5 at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline.
The 2021 yearbook theme references Covid-19, but doesn’t dwell on it, Miers said. It’s called “Pride Over Place.”
“On every page, there’s a reference to kind of how this year in whatever activity they’ve been in, they can still have Rocky pride even though they may not be at the school or on the court or kind of in their normal spot that they usually would be in.”
