The Radford High School Oakleaf yearbook staff won the Trophy Class award from the Virginia High School League for their 2021-2022 publication titled, “It’s Up To Us.”
The staff of four students, with help from student volunteers, photographed events in and out of school, designed artwork, and wrote copy for the 212-page publication. The theme for the book centered on the return from a difficult year for students and how “it’s up to us” to make it a year to remember.
In the opening of the book, the staff wrote, “We can determine how this school year will be. We can be teenagers again. We can live in the moment. We will develop our future, one step at a time.”
To support the idea of rebuilding and starting fresh, the staff went to drafting teacher Cody Roberts for blueprints of different parts of the school that they scanned and used in their design. “I’m very proud of the hard work the kids put into this book and am thrilled they are receiving this well-deserved recognition,” said Yearbook Advisor Savannah Leeman.
The four staff members are Editor-in-Chief Cassidy Mann, Co-Editor Audrey Bucy, Co-Editor Matthew Irvin, and Jeremy Gilmore. “Winning the Trophy Class from VHSL means a lot to the team and to me because we had worked very hard trying to communicate with each student class after being isolated the previous year,” said Co-Editor Audrey Bucy. “It was difficult having only four members, but we managed to represent the student body as best as we could.”.