Samantha Sheleheda has been the yearbook editor-in-chief for LVA since her sophomore year.
In the summer of 2021, Sheleheda was selecting her freshman elective classes. While scrolling through the various options, she saw the class publications and thought, “Oh, I could put publications down as a class. That’s fine.” Funny enough, Sheleheda was supposed to select Spanish instead, but never realized her mistake. “I didn’t realize I was supposed to put Spanish at that part, so therefore, I didn’t take Spanish my freshman year at all, but I am thankful that I didn’t take the class because then I would not have been in the yearbook at all.”
Once the class began in August, Sheleheda remembers doing the beginning tasks of picking a theme and figuring out how to create a yearbook with her adviser, Ms. Strehl.
“At first, I wasn’t in love with it (the publications class), I’m not going to lie. I was kind of like, okay, this is just gonna be an elective. It’s fine, I’ll do my thing,” admits Sheleheda. However, “Once we started working on it some more, and we got going on creating the actual book, then I was like, huh, this is actually kind of fun.” Sheleheda’s beginning experience in publications shows that even if you don’t enjoy something at first, if you keep going, you can discover a new passion for yourself.
In publications, you are given a team leader to help guide and supervise members of your group. Sheleheda did not always agree with her team leader’s timeliness with deadlines. After asking her parents for advice, they told her, “You’re not the leader, so relax, it’s not your job right now.” Coincidentally, the very next day, Sheleheda was pulled aside by the current editor-in-chief, Maggie, and told, “Your team leader is fired. You’re the team leader now.” Without even a warning, Sheleheda jumped into the position and took initiative.
At the beginning, Sheleheda struggled to find her voice and being firm with her teammates on deadlines. After getting her footing, “I started finding my voice on being a bit more firm, and then I realized that leading is kind of fun. This isn’t too bad, and creating the yearbooks is fun.”
When the school semester started to close, Ms. Strehl, the adviser, nominated Sheleheda to try for next year’s editor-in-chief. After submitting her application, Ms. Strehl and Maggie let her know she was picked for the job.
Sheleheda has had 4 years of experience in publications and highly recommends the class to others: “It is such a fun class because you get to go to performances; you get to have a whole new experience of what LVA is by seeing and meeting people that you would never interact with.”
After interviewing Sheleheda, I can tell how passionate and grateful she is for her experience in publications and how much hard work and dedication she has put into the class.
