yearbook
BOOT
CAMP
Jump-Start Your Next Yearbook!
Get a head start on creating an unforgettable yearbook with our comprehensive Yearbook Boot Camp. Designed for yearbook staffs and advisers, this training series will equip you with a solid game plan to make your next yearbook exceptional. You’ll leave with a working theme, ladder, marketing plan, cover and more!
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Training Highlights
- Organization and Leadership: Build strong leadership and streamline your yearbook process.
- Photography and Composition: Enhance your photography skills to capture stunning images.
- Writing and Interviewing: Master the art of compelling writing and effective interviewing.
- Middle School Basics: Tailored tips and techniques for middle school yearbook teams.
- Design Fundamentals: Learn the basics of using grids and more with your staff.
Meet Your Hosts
Join industry experts Mike Taylor, CJE, Jim Jordan, Sabrina Schmitz, CJE, and special guests who have crafted five special training videos to help your yearbook staff start building essential skills today.
Jim Jordan
Jim Jordan is the former yearbook adviser at Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California, and now a special consultant for Walsworth Yearbooks. He was a yearbook adviser for 35 years, and over the years the Decamhian yearbook earned numerous Pacemaker and CSPA Gold Crown honors. The Decamhian was recognized in 2022 as having earned the second-highest number of Pacemakers in NSPA’s 100 year history. Jordan was the 1996 JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year, and has received CSPA Gold Key, NSPA Pioneer, JEA Medal of Merit and JEA Lifetime Achievement awards. He received the Linda S. Puntney Teacher Inspiration Award in 2021. He now shares his expertise with students and advisers at workshops and conventions across the country and leads mentorship through the Adviser Mentor Program. He was among the first to embrace desktop technology in the 1980s and apply it to yearbook, and he remains an innovator in the yearbook industry. Be sure to check out his yearbook-focused podcast, Yearbook Chat with Jim that highlights the stories of great yearbook advisers from around the country.
Mike Taylor
Mike Taylor, CJE, is a Key Accounts Manager with Walsworth Yearbooks. He taught yearbook, newspaper and television production at Lecanto High School, Lecanto, Florida, for 13 years, where his publications staffs won numerous awards. Taylor has been awarded the JEA Medal of Merit, CSPA Gold Key and Florida Scholastic Press Association Gold Medallion. As a well-known instructor at workshops and conventions across the country, he has consulted with countless yearbook staffs to help them realize their potential in creating journalistic yearbooks.
Sabrina Schmitz
Sabrina Schmitz, CJE, is a Walsworth Yearbooks representative, key accounts specialist and the former publications adviser at J.W. Mitchell High School in Trinity, Florida. Under her leadership, The Stampede yearbook earned multiple CSPA Crowns, an NSPA Pacemaker, and was a Design of the Year Finalist. She was Teacher of the Year in 2013, a District Teacher of the Year Finalist, and teaches at workshops and conventions nationwide.
Susan McNulty
Susan McNulty is The Stampede yearbook adviser at J.W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey, Florida. In her ten years as adviser, The Stampede has been named an NSPA Pacemaker finalist and winner, a CPSA Silver Crown winner, and a Sunshine Standout and All-Florida ranking for ten straight years from the Florida Scholastic Press Association. She has been named Pasco County Teacher of the year, JEA Rising Star, FSPA Teacher of the Year, and FSPA Gold Medallion winner. Her students regularly attend state and national workshops and compete and place in design, photography and writing contests.
Brit Taylor
Brit Taylor is a yearbook, newspaper and website adviser in Oviedo, Florida, at Hagerty High School. He has advised yearbook for 28 years and newspaper for 23. Taylor is drawn to the real-world application of high school journalism, and he appreciates the many lessons that publications teach. He is the past president of the Florida Scholastic Press Association, and in the spring, he was recognized as a Distinguished adviser by JEA. His publications have earned Pacemaker and Crown awards, and his students have earned individual awards including Design of the Year finalists and Gold Circle awards. When he is not teaching workshops in Florida or beyond, Taylor likes to visit national parks with his wife, Maureen and three kids.
Tod Traughber
Dr. Tod Traughber has worked in the publications industry in Central Arkansas for the past 19 years. Currently serving as the adviser to The Wildcat yearbook and the Director of the Harding Academy Photography Staff, Tod challenges his students to see life differently and capture those visions through a lens. Tod has been married to his college sweetheart for 31 years and has two teenage sons.
Andrew Young
Andrew Young, CJE, is the adviser of The Round-Up from Woodland Junior High School. He was named a 2017 Rising Star by JEA, 2018 Arkansas Adviser of the Year, 2018 Fayetteville Public Schools Teacher of the Year, 2020 Outstanding Young Alumni from the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions and most recently 2022 JEA Special Recognition Adviser. His staffs have been recognized in the JEA Middle School/Junior High Media contest, NSPA Picture/Story/Design of the Year contests, Arkansas Scholastic Press Association awards and Walsworth Photo Contest. The Round-Up has won multiple CSPA Crown and NSPA Pacemaker awards. Young currently serves as the President of the Arkansas Scholastic Press Association and has a passion for seeing junior high and middle school journalism programs take it to the next level.