Lincoln-Way West High School yearbook in New Lenox wins national recognition

Months of hard work and planning have paid off for the yearbook staff at Lincoln-Way West well as praise from student colleagues.

“Each year, the yearbook staff is faced with the challenging task of creating a completely new yearbook and theme that will give their fellow students a memory book of their high school years,” said Lincoln-Way West English teacher and yearbook adviser Steve Borchert.

The popular 2015 Lincoln-Way West High School yearbook has been inducted into Walsworth Yearbooks’ Gallery of Excellence.

The Gallery of Excellence is a showcase of the best yearbooks published by Walsworth.

“Yearbooks are selected based on the high quality of their design, coverage, copy and photography,” noted Don Walsworth, president, in a letter to Borchert informing him of West’s yearbook national recognition.

“The theme the students picked for West’s sixth yearbook is ‘Inside a Warrior.’ Karina Urbanczyk, our editor-in-chief, designed the cover and developed the theme inside the book. She did a great job,” noted Borchert.

“With this theme, we really focused on our school. We really incorporated the orange and black while displaying key elements of our theme throughout the book,” Urbanczyk said.

“We included icons representing our key elements of design. We tried to keep our focus on 2015. We wanted people who looked at the yearbook in 10 years to know it was from 2015,” she added.

Urbanczyk, staff member Morgan Staley and Borchert were handing out the yearbooks to students on pickup day.

Students could pick up their yearbooks during their lunch hours on May 20. Seniors picked up their yearbooks on May 21 before school and during lunch hour.

Yearbook staff members include: Megan Abner, Julia Aleksic, Brett Bergman, Kaelen Evon, Danielle Kuchler, Lena Kudos, Katryna Kustwan, Taylor LeBeau, Anna Leo, Meagan Miller, Zachary Novack, Kristian Ruff, Staley, Rachel Sterkowitz, Urbanczyk and Alison Yost.

“Students greeted the greatly anticipated yearbook with smiles and compliments of success,” added Borchert.