By David Fleet
Editor
While the 2021 Martianaire was challenging to publish due to the pandemic, it may also be the most rewarding for GHS Yearbook Advisor Cheryl Jerisk.
Despite the obstacles, the Martianaire is now among the top nationwide.
The 2021 Goodrich High School yearbook was featured in the Jostens annual “Best of the Best” publication, the Look Book 2022. A team of experts selected 458 yearbooks from nearly 1,000 submissions to be honored in various categories. The Martianaire was chosen as one of 33 books honored for overall theme development based on our cover design, coverage of students, and consistent and unique graphic design carried throughout the book.
GHS and Grand Blanc High School were the only two schools from Michigan to earn this honor.
“We had to figure out how to meaningfully cover all of our students, but had to figure out how to get to our students that chose to be virtual,” said Jerisk, a 2005 Saginaw Valley State University graduate who has been at GHS since 2006. “Our theme was “What If…” and encompassed a way of looking deeper into the ordinary and routine that we had all become accustomed to. That led us to getting some really meaningful coverage. What also helped was asking the students to send us a pictures of themselves that they like, so many times, students hate the pictures that are taken candidly, or even posed, that get put in the yearbook, but by giving us pictures they were proud of, that gave them confidence and, in a way, trust in the yearbook for caring enough to make it more personal and ‘get it right’”
Last year 500 yearbooks were ordered and sold out.
“If you’re a student in yearbook, it works a bit differently than any other class you’re in since it is the only class that has a real-life product that costs us approximately $40,000 to publish that can also have real legal ramifications,” she said. “I run my class a bit more differently than other advisers because of my experience in newspaper.”
Instead of having every student to do everything, it becomes a bit more like a job where students focus on getting their points through their strengths, she added.
Martianaire editor-in-chief, Leah Newell, has been with the yearbook program since she was a freshman.
“Leah became the editor-in-chief as a junior, something I’ve never done before, but she definitely earned it,” she said. “Senior Paige Matthews, who has been the assistant editor for the past two years, has also been a huge help, especially on keeping things organized, making sure we had the content we needed and doing whatever jobs were asked of her. And, of course, no book would even be close to being made without a motivated staff who truly cares about getting students covered in meaningful ways.”