Jupiter High School’s (JHS) yearbook is a massive production that our students run and produce every year. The yearbook is filled cover to cover, consisting of photos, articles, features on students, school wide events and academic highlights. 

The 2025-2026 school year has brought the program a new teacher: Alysia Grantham, who teaches both yearbook and AP Literature.

JHS is populated with over 3,000 students. Due to the sheer size of the student body, being on the yearbook staff is an extensive commitment taken on throughout the entire school year. 

“We have a message that we are trying to portray, and then we have designs which convey that message,” Ava Scotten, yearbook Editor-in-Chief, said. “Everything we put in the book is intentional.”

With an average of 400 pages, the staff uses programs such as Adobe, Stratus and Photoshop to design, organize and develop their ideas. 

Adobe is an online platform that creates a wide variety of media from videos to developing  yearbooks. Stratus allows for the management of online videos and photos that will eventually be featured in the yearbook. Photoshop is an Adobe app that edits photos to better fit the yearbook; it can remove backgrounds, change colors in photos and highlight the important parts of a photograph. 

The class is split into groups with different team leaders that help the staff stay on track for their deadlines. 

“I go through every single person’s work and leave comments on everything,” Lizzy Sober, yearbook team leader, said. “I tell them what they need to fix so they can practice.” 

The team leaders, as well as the Editors-in-Chief develop the yearbook with meticulous planning and detailed objectives towards the outcome of the yearbook’s appearance.

Staff are given the options to physically write out their ideas or map them out online. Through this, more ideas are developed as the new staff are able to convey their suggestions without the confusion of using software platforms. 

“The planning looks really different than our actual book does, where the planning helps us lay out how we want our book to look and all the elements we want,” Ethan Michaels, yearbook Editor-in-Chief, said. 

Most of the yearbook staff develop their own personal spreads that then are inserted into the yearbook. 

The yearbook covers sports, and clubs, but also goes into depth about unseen classes and extracurriculars. It’s a way to represent the school as a whole as well as connecting everyone under one message or theme.

“A personal spread is more so focused on one person, like a feature,” Matthew Gutierrez, yearbook staffer, said. “It’s their story.” 

Prior to having photos taken to fill the yearbook, there are layouts and page setups, established with the style and theme of the yearbook. 

“I like to start with design, because I feel like even when you don’t have pictures of a story yet you can always start with how you want your page to look,” Scotten said. “I think it’s the best way to get yourself interested in what you’re doing, because as soon as you have a design that you are set on, it’s like a flow state.” 

Yearbooks tie together the entire school year, helping students commemorate their experience and look back on the memories that they made along the way. 

“I feel like it’s important that there are people out there who are gonna tell stories and document everything that happens in a year,” Sober said. “And everyone’s story gets told.”