Yearbook Club

Student Name	Yasmyn Ntege
Activity Name / Description	Yearbook Club
Location	Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa
Was it C, A, S or a combination?	CREATIVITY + SERVICE
Hours of CAS	12 Hours
Dates (Initiation – Completion)	Beginning of Term 1 - December

Yearbook was a club I joined in the beginning of the term due to my interest in photography and photojournalism. I was the only DP student in the club and so by default had to take on an air of leadership and to lead by example. This meant showing up to all the meetings on time and produce valuable knowledge into the conversations and discussions we had during our after school meets.

I think the one thing I didn’t like about Yearbook was the scheduling for it. This year the school has decided to make the last lesson a class and not core time like it used to be when I was in grade 10. So it was a bit taxing to have even another session added to an already long schedule. This resulted in me sometimes suffering from headaches due to the combination of the heat brought upon us in Mombasa and the fact that I was so worn out from a full day of classes. Despite this, I was able to maintain a great attendance record only missing once as there where the DP1 November exams occurring. Also, being a role model to the other kids in the yearbook, I had to put on a strong face and act unaffected by the factors working against us.

I enjoyed being able to have a platform where I could explore my interest in photography. It made the club even more worthwhile because I knew my work would be best appreciated there. I was able to also take a position of leadership when it came to teaching the other members how to take good photographs. I taught them the basics of composition and lighting and they were able to capture a few good pictures. This had to be done with a camera and not a phone so they all took turns shooting with my camera and getting accustomed to a more disciplined method of capturing moments in school.

Besides just taking photos for the yearbook, we also worked behind the scenes with miss Emma to decide the layout the whole book was going to take on. We did this by sampling yearbooks from our previous schools and getting all the information we could to create a more appealing AKA,M yearbook. This of course had to take into account the logistical factors. This included the budget and seeing if we could stretch the number of pages allotted for the yearbook to fit in some things we thought would be important. We were able to settle on a layout and miss Emma our supervisor acted as the bridge between us, and the authorities in school i.e. the principal and the finance team. We were able to then get immediate feedback and adjust to the new information accordingly.

In general I think I learnt a lot and I am happy with the contribution I had in the club. It was a nice experience and didn’t have the pressure I experience in a lot of the other competitive activities I do. Moving forward, the club was disbanded as there was no need for it anymore but I still am a contributor to the yearbook through a drop box shared file where I upload pictures that I take throughout the year.

SUPERVISOR: Ms Emma Thompson