Instructor Michelle Didzbalis
Mission Statement
The Mundelein High School Yearbook Staff aims to engage our readers in the achievements we have gained and the accomplishments we have made beyond school walls. Our publication strives to provide creative outlooks on the events of the year and showcase the community our school is proud to uphold. The Mundelein High School Yearbook shall reflect the views of its audience, students and teachers alike, with spirit and diversity.
Course Description
Learn how to capture the significant moments of the MHS school year that your friends and family will treasure for the rest of their lives while producing the yearbook The Obelisk. This class will teach you the basics of photojournalism, journalism, graphic design and marketing. Yearbook/Photojournalism will prepare you for careers in journalism, communications, photography, graphic design, public relations and marketing.
Awards
Our program strives to bring you award-winning coverage! Please see the press releases below about the various awards we have won over the years.
Policy Guide: Please see our program’s policies at the following link. Note, this document is ever-evolving and can be updated as needed and without notice.
New Voices Law: Illinois has a law in place that gives yearbook editors significant control over and responsibility for the content of the yearbook while limiting censorship by those not on staff, including limiting censorship from school administration and the adviser. If you are interested in learning more about this law, please visit the Student Press Law Center at this link.
Staff bios: Meet this year’s staff by clicking on this link here.
Contact Information
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Editor-in-chief: Avery Refka, 220424@students.d120.org
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Sports Editor: Elizabeth Heraty, 210203@students.d120.org
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Clubs Editor: Brianna Richards, 220435@students.d120.org
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Adviser: Michelle Didzbalis, mdidzbalis@d120.org, 847-949-2200 ext. 1533
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Staff email: Mundyyearbook@gmail.com
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Twitter: @MHSyrbook178
Content & Photo Submission Information
FAQs: Below is information addressing some of the questions we are asked most frequently.
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Why don’t we get our yearbooks in the spring? Why do they normally get distributed in August (which in the yearbook world is called a fall delivery)? With the introduction of social media, yearbooks have had to reinvent themselves to remain relevant by the end of the year when most people have seen a ton of pictures from events throughout the year. Therefore, yearbooks have evolved from what have been traditionally just picture books to books that feel more like magazines with articles, interviews, detailed captions and more elaborate designs. Consequently, yearbooks have become very time-intensive projects that take about 10 months to complete, which carries over into the summer. If schools want a spring delivery, the staff would not get spring sports, prom, graduation and senior celebrations into this year’s yearbook, especially since MHS gets out early and the seniors graduate so early. Instead, the yearbook staff would either have to put these events in the next year’s yearbook, which would require people to purchase more than one book for the year, or they would have to do an insert, which would require seniors to return to the school for the insert anyway. As a result, the staff consistently, year after year, decides to continue with the fall delivery so that all the content for the year is contained in one book. Please note the decision to do a fall delivery has not been made without much thought and reason behind it. We are aware that many seniors go off to college, and that’s why we do yearbook pick-up before the school year even starts.