Commack’s Crossroads Yearbook recently received a national award for their 2019-2020 yearbook. 

The hallway decorating spread from the 2020 yearbook was featured in the Jostens 2021 Look Book. This is an incredible honor for Crossroads. The Look Book showcases the best yearbooks in the nation and honors “the important role well-crafted yearbooks play in helping schools chronicle the experiences, stories and achievements most relevant to students and that academic year,” according to Jostens website. 

Due to the pandemic, Crossroads was faced with the challenge of completing a high quality yearbook in a remote setting. Typically editors work collaboratively in the Publishing Suite with writers and photographers. Crossroads members would be able to get together in person and work on the book in the Suite. After March 13, all of that collaboration had to be done remotely. 

“During the shutdown, we had to really shift things, and try to include as much as we could that was memorable and it ended up being a very historical edition because of the additions that we included after the shutdown,” said Christina Semple, Crossroads adviser. 

Many of the activities highlighted in Crossroads were cancelled and the staff had to think outside the box in order to find content for the yearbook. Crossroads members also had to meet their deadlines in order to get the book completed on time for it to be distributed to seniors. 

“At the time of the shutdown, we still had space for three major events that were cancelled. The ‘Hallway Decorating’ event for ‘Battle of the Classes’ was the last event to happen before the world changed. The editors were able to get enough photos to include it as a spread. We were scrambling, but the fact that it was that spread that the Look Book acknowledged made it even more rewarding knowing all that we went through to include it,” said Semple. 

The competition is very selective and it is very hard to get chosen for the Look Book. Schools across the nation enter their books in hopes of getting in the Look Book. High schools across the country, as well as colleges such as Harvard and Yale, submit their books in hopes of making it in. 

“The Look Book is a nationwide contest where Jostens Yearbooks evaluates yearbooks across the country. They had 1,000 entries, and we were the only Jostens book in Suffolk to be selected,” said Semple. 

Members of Crossroads were very excited that their hard work paid off. 

“It’s awesome to see everyone’s hard work be recognized, especially during a hard year. Everyone who worked on the book should feel very accomplished,” said senior Charlotte V., 2021 editor-in-chief of Crossroads, via text message. 

Crossroads aims to continue being recognized in the Look Book and they are not afraid to put in the work to get there. 

“Everyone just has to keep working hard and putting their best foot forward. I’m confident we’ll be able to make the Look Book again,” said Charlotte V.🔳