Online learning and COVID-19 have presented many challenges for students at Lincoln. For this year’s yearbook staff, distance learning means producing a yearbook unlike any before, without currently being able to take pictures of students in class or at school events.

Junior Riley Buehler never thought that she would be creating a yearbook about online school when she forecasted for the class in the spring. This will be her second year on the yearbook staff, and she will be monitoring the changes in its format.

“This year the yearbook will hopefully look different in a unique way while we hold on to some of the main characteristics from books in the past,” Buehler said.  

Sophomore Ava Rispler, who took the class to become closer to the Lincoln community after moving from Florida, agreed with Buehler.

 “Students can expect to see the same yearbook, just a little modified. For example, instead of covering a sport, we could say, ‘What have you been doing in quarantine to be able to stay in shape for that sport?’ My goal is for students to get that same excitement and joy when looking at this new yearbook, even if it is a little different,” Rispler said.

Senior Tommy Brown explains another modification in the yearbook.

“We typically have a homecoming page, but this year we will be talking about what people will be doing for their own homecomings. I know some friend groups will want to do things like that,” Brown said.

A feature that some students may miss is the removal of senior quotes this year, as it is “not best practices for student journalists,” according to the Lincoln website.

Even though the class won’t be like other years, the staff still has a positive outlook.

“I feel excited in a way to still even have a yearbook through these crazy times. It is a gift for the school no matter what, and I feel like that should be the excitement and motivation for this class,” Rispler said.

Brown feels the same.

“I’m actually really excited for the yearbook this year because, while it’s going to be completely different from past years, it also gives us pretty much complete creativity,” he said. 

Part of the yearbook team’s creative way to incorporate student voices into the yearbook involves a lot of Google Forms. These will be sent to the student body to collect information about sports, clubs, classes or activities. Because of the challenges presented by COVID-19, the yearbook team is going to rely heavily on sent-in photos and these responses from the student body.

“With this uncertainty of how the school year will play out along with the yearbook, we are [determined] to make the best book possible under the circumstances and hope to make it a memorable once in a lifetime experience,” senior Gabe Shah said.

Please help out the yearbook team by submitting your own photos to  [email protected], and following the guidelines to do so here:  https://www.pps.net/Page/6968