The feeling of pride was still lingering in the minds of the 2017-18 Round-Up yearbook staff after winning an NSPA All-American rating. That pride was renewed by an email from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association stating the staff had achieved a Gold Medal rating, the highest that the internationally recognized organization could offer.

“We were thrilled but not surprised,” Round-Up adviser Sallyanne Harris said. “We knew this was the best book we’ve ever done.”

Judges rate yearbooks based off of three categories: reference, verbal and visual. Reference involves the book’s reader-friendly structure and historical accuracy within the pages. Verbal encompasses the book’s storytelling capacity, how well each story was narrated. Visual referred to the design, photography and typography of the book. Gold medal rate yearbooks have scores from these categories adding up to 800-1000. The Round-Up scored 912.

“We were really focused on making a competition book. We were really making sure everything we did was geared towards the judges and what they wanted to see, along with what we wanted to do and what the students would like,” senior managing editor Lillie Brummitt said. “It seemed like that hard work paid off. It was a lot of hours working on tedious little things for competition, so just seeing that they actually noticed those things was really nice.”

The judges commented on the book’s outstanding content, including the stories that were heartwarming, meaningful and powerful. Some of those stories include features on the hurricane that occured last year, body image and protests.

“We tried to get a broad spectrum from the entire school so that we could really cover all groups on our campus,” Harris said. “We really looked for more meaningful and heartwarming stories, stories that were deeper, not just surface stories.”

Last year, new additions to the yearbook included videos which could be watched through the use of the HP Reveal app. The small play button indication on specific photos meant a student could scan over it with the app and watch the accompanying video or graphic. For the Round-Up, this especially aided in capturing not just split seconds, but entire moments.

“We went above and beyond with our design elements,” Harris said. “We also improved on our videography to where we have videos on almost every page of the book.”

This is the first time the CHS yearbook has achieved the Gold Medal rank.

“Last year, I really think we upped our level of caliber within the book. In the year before, it was really good, but last year really just took it up to a new level,” Brummitt said. “It was more of a modern approach to a yearbook rather than traditional.”

The yearbook class spans the entire year, beginning the first week of summer with photographic coverage. Its members go through a selection process that includes filling out an application form, being interviewed and submitting both writing and photography portfolios. This means the staff consists of the cream of the crop, a large factor of why the final product was worthy of such an accolade.

“Working on yearbook is really fun but it’s also a lot of work. We’re all like a family,” Brummitt said. “We can joke around, but at the same time we know how to get serious and do our business when we need to.”

Now that the Round-Up has had its first taste of the gold medal rating, an objective is to continue earning it in upcoming editions of the yearbook.

“We want to make this book even better than last year,” junior staff member Anna Guzniczak said. “Obviously, that’s the goal every year, but this time I know we want to go into deeper topics for a lot of things. I’m hoping we will be able to cover different things and more interesting topics. It’s going to be amazing.”

In the end, however, the award is not the only thing to consider when determining the success of a yearbook. It is the effort put into it and the feedback it receives from the people it was directed towards.

“Our main goal is to make a book that our school loves and the community loves,” Harris said. “It’s not about winning awards, but about creating a book that people will cherish.”