BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

Life at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Captured Between Two Covers

By Celia Houston, Saint Thomas' Episcopal School, School Buzz Editor | May 9, 2016

Click the Buzz Me button to receive email notifications when this writer publishes a new article or a new article in this column is published.

Editing, proofreading, organizing and Starbucks are the things typically seen in the yearbook room. (From left) Eli Melendrez, Alex Liang, Miranda Graves, Claire LaFevers, Theresa Hotze and Mr. David Graves.

The Saint Thomas’ Episcopal yearbook, The Belltower, is consistently rated one of the top yearbooks in the nation. At this small private school, yearbook is just one of many activities. The yearbook staff must work extra hard to compete against much larger public and private schools.

Every year the editors submit the book to various competitions hosted through the Texas Association of Private and Parochial School (TAPPS), Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and Interscholastic League Press Conference. Annually, juniors and seniors get the opportunity to fly to New York to submit the yearbook to Columbia University’s judges that compare it against the hundreds of other yearbooks submitted that year.

Students manage all phases of yearbook production. There are three editors and chiefs, one photo editor, one advertising manager and one general manager. None of this would be possible without Mr. David Graves, the yearbook teacher. He assigns what everyone is doing, and makes the chaos of the process a little more organized. Every single job is crucial to the phenomenal outcome of the yearbook every year. There may only be six head positions, but every student that participates in the yearbook has their own specific job.

Students are in charge of writing articles, taking photos, getting interviews or raising money for the yearbook through selling ads. There is not a day in the school year that people are not up in the yearbook room working at their Macs either editing articles, creating spreads, or editing and organizing the thousands of thousands of photos that represent the student life. As deadlines draw near, many late night and early mornings are spent in the yearbook room making final edits, proofreading and preparing the yearbook to be sent off for judging.

Every student gets one of these outstanding books, meaning that approximately 660 are printed each year. This is just one of the many traditions that has been around since 1971 when the first yearbook was printed. The editors consider it one of their prides and joys. Every senior gets a special page dedicated to them and dedicated to the impact STE has made on them. The handing out of yearbooks is one of the main things students look forward as the year draws to an end and as the stress of finals sets in.