Meghan’s Portfolio
semester two - 2017 TEAM LEADER
resume
cover letter
Dear Mrs. Hart: I am interested in filling the position on your yearbook staff. More specifically I would be interested in the position of design editor. I am interested in this position because I enjoy creative design and am very knowledgeable in indesign and edesign. I also enjoy taking photos, interviewing and writing stories as well so I would be able to help in that aspect as well. I am interested because I have always wanted to be part of a publication especially yearbook. I am dedicated and driven and will do anything to get this publication in tip top shape. I will do my work and help anyone else who needs help. I would love to help make the design board come to life on the spreads through out the book. I also could provide ideas for copy and mod ideas in the yearbook. I have experience as I was previously on the staff and a team leader where I designed my teams spreads. My resume is enclosed and provides by experience, references, activites, objective, and education. I am open for an interview whenever you are first available. I would love to talk to you further about the job. I believe I would be a asset to this publication and I hope you will consider me for this job. Thank you for your time and I hope to schedule an interview with you soon. Sincerely, Meghan Schindler
reflection number one semester two
reflection number one - semester one
My most significant piece of work so far this year was my main story about the marching band. I had the opportunity to write about how they had returned after a hiatus which fits perfectly with only this year. When I started writing I automatically knew the angle which made it easy to interview two students and the band director. My struggle with the story was starting it but the rest of it was very easy and flowed nicely. I had multiple different people edit the story to change it from the rough draft to the final. I was retaught because I forgot that you had to indent after each quote. I also learned that sometime teachers do not respond to emails and it is better to go in and ask face to face when an interview would be good. What I like about this piece is that it had good interviews which allowed for a good story. Also I like how it was written and worded. I think it is a story that everyone can relate to but is personal to our school and I think it is cool that they are back. Rough draft is below. After a year without a marching band, the wait is finally over and the fight song is no longer a recording. The band has reassembled again this year and has thirteen members. “Right now in band we have two trombonists including myself, two clarinet players, two flutists, a trumpet player, two tenor saxophonists, one alto saxophonist, and I think five percussionists,” said Cailan Cordwell, a four year band member and senior. There have been changes in band. Kevin Brady is the new band teacher this year. Brady has been teaching band at the elementary schools within the district for 2 years. Brady said, “My goals this year are to accomplish some excit-
ing new music to achieve a present on campus again and at football games and to get the band out into the community and to be able to hear what we’ve been working on.” “Having a new band director there is obviously going to be differences from before cause our last director was teaching for 30 something years, but the new band director is slowly revamping it and I think it will be better in a couple of years,” said Orion Lauer, a senior. With a new band director there comes new changes for the class. Mr. Brady has decided to switch it up by teaching band new songs. In addition to playing the Fight Song, the band is also performing more up-beat songs like Shut Up and Dance as well as Centuries. Gabrielle Arias, a junior, said, “We’re playing different songs. It’s more interesting now.” Lauer said the best part is “having a community to relate too in a way and encourage people to strive to be better in the group.” “In a band this small, everyone’s role is significant regardless of the instrument they play,” Cordwell said. There is only a few changes made between the rough and the final draft in that a sentence was added in between two quotes because you can not have two quotes right after each other which I learned. I enjoy writing main stories because they are straight and to the point but you can be creative with which angle you chose to take. I overall enjoyed covering this topic because it was new and exciting and I got to interview people I had not talked to in a really long time. The story is straight and to the point and does not feel to sort it covers what is needed to be known.
This semester I learned to more about design, making things happen in a short amount of time, how to use Edesign and that communication is very important. Design aspects I learned more about trapped white space and making fonts the right sizes. I also learned the ins and outs of Edesign and that it is super nice to be able to work on the yearbook in the comfort of your bed or couch whichever you prefer. One of my teammates struggled with getting things done on time so on deadline nights I learned how get content done as well as designing spreads so it definitely helped with my multitasking skills. I also learned that even when you offer to help someone out they do not always want and decide not to do but we figure it out. Communication is very important not just in your team but with other teams, editors, and editor and chiefs. It is very important to know what everyone is doing and when they are doing and if they need help. Also if they want something done a certain way they need to tell you and show you that. Yearbook is probably one of the few classes in high school that actually prepares you for the real world in the aspect that it is a real job and a lot is riding on you getting it done in a certain amount of time. With that it leads us into deadlines. Deadlines are a big deal not so much in other high school classes but missing a deadline in yearbook is losing money which no one wants. This prepares yourself for college with no doubt because if you do not turn in your work you could fail a class which loses money. One in yearbook should learn to manage their time and complete tasks
as efficiently as possible by the time it is due. In the future I hope to get even better at them and hopefully decrease my procrastination more. Teamwork is essential in this class. I would like to think I work well with others I try to always ask if anyone needs help and check in on how my team is doing. I would definitely try to talk to my team even more and actually go with them and make sure they understand what they do to do it and that they understand how important deadlines are. It is important to work together as a team so everyone knows what to do and that no one person has to do everything and gets stressed out. We definitely need to all have a better communication like I talked about before. We need to have weekly meetings or something with everyone. There also needs to be a change in coverage because a lot of the time events, clubs, and sports were only covered once and you had only a few pictures to choose from. Journalism ethics are what separates it from fiction. Journalists should seek the truth and report it, should be honest, fair, and courageous. Journalists also should always cite sources and do their own work because someone will eventually find out if you plagiarize. They are important because you need to tell the truth and not make a story or be bias. I was asset because I brought my creativity in design and ideas for content. I also always helped out when I could and always asked people if they needed. I always stayed after when I needed to get things done and on deadline nights tried to do everything that I needed to get done and tried to help others. My biggest hardship this year was one of my teammates never did anything and was not honest when anyone asked if she did it. It was kind of annoying to constantly be deceived and to try to give her the benefit of the doubt but you always had to do it yourself last time. We had to finally gave up on her and would assign her things but just end up doing it ourselves. I do not know how else we would’ve handled the situation but it was just hard to deal with when you care they do not. Other than that everything went very smoothly everyone else on my team including myself got their work done on time to be put on the spread for deadline night! My greatest weakness publication related was getting things done in an efficient matter I always got my assignments done on time but something would find myself doing some things last minute the day before or day of a deadline. I could overcome this my planning everything out and following it to the best of my ability so I do everything at the correct time.
self - analytical essay semester one This semester in this course I learned about production skills, deadlines, teamwork, journalism ethics and dedication. Being in this course last year I really was just reminded of skills I learned such as caption writing, proper interviewing etiquette, photographing skills and writing style. I am learning how to be a leader having a team and making sure they are doing what they need to be doing and helping them when they need help. We have had some miscommunications which lead to problems but we are figuring them out. I will use the leadership skills in maybe later managerial positions that I could be put into as well as using interviewing skills as a way to talk to people you do not know. Also any writing you do makes you a better in the long run and the class also asks for your creativity which is fun and allows you to go in lots of different directions. A new thing I had to learn this year was to use edesign since I was familiar with indesign and the change was big at first but I have the hang of it now. Deadlines are so so so so important especially in this class it is the first real life experience you have where it is an all or nothing thing. I think it is a good learning thing and definitely makes you not procrastinate as much I mean it such a human thing to do so it is not totally unavoidable but I find myself doing it very little. In the future I hope I continue to do things as soon as possible and get it down effectively and well. I think I work well with others I always try to get everyone’s opinions and inputs as well as try to ask all my team members if they need help in anyway at all. I feel some other people need to learn to work better with people and take things more seriously as well as ask for help when it is afforded. Journalism ethics are what makes journalism and what sets it apart from fiction. You learn in this class that you can not change quotes even if they do not make sense or want a better one it is your job to report the truth. Being objective is sometimes hard but not possible and it is very important to
not have that plaster all over your yearbook because it defeats the whole being truthful. I was asset to the staff in that I always had all my mods and stories done on time and if someone on my team did not have something done by the deadline we do it right there and then and get it in there. Also if a page was not finished I would spend time at home working on it until it was completely done and to my liking. I think I am very commitmented to this publication being my second year and i love doing it a lot and I know this year’s book will being great. The biggest problems I faced this semester was communication especially with the staff members and them not talking to people who could help them and not saying about having problems until the day before or day of deadline. Using Trello is sort of helping but I am trying hard to ask them both how they are doing daily and make sure they are on top of their mods and stories. My weakness publication related is probably thinking of mod ideas for some reason I find it a lot harder this year and can not seem to think of creative ideas that are more than pictures and quotes. I plan to overcome this weakness by asking other people to help brainstorm as well as use other yearbooks as resources for inspiration to use in our publication.
reflection two - semester one My first favorite piece is my golf profile mod. I like this mod because it is very personal and let the students learn about why the golfers started playing and why. The mod was also fun to interview people for and ask them interesting questions that made them really think. I also really like the design of the mod it is very colorful and cool. I enjoyed also being there start to finish it from the interviews, to taking the pictures and then designing it. My second favorite thing is my world language main story. I enjoyed writing because the angle was so cute and personal. The girl which I know her dad’s side of the family is hispanic and she
never learned so there was a language barrier between them. She took Spanish now as a freshman so she can talk to them personal and really understand what they are saying. I think it was well written and covered the topic well and I was able to be there start to finish it and I worked hard on it. My third favorite thing is the picture of Emily Perez I took for the world language story. I went over to her house and took photos of her studying Spanish and it was a really good photo. It was good quality and it shows her studying the language and she is look down at the story which is cool.
reflection two semester two
My favorite spread I did this year was the hockey one which is pages 102-103. I like this spread because it’s creative in the content and the design. The spread is different in the aspect that the dominant part of the spread is a mod about how much it costs to be a goalie this was difficult in that the only goalie on the hockey was really hard to get in contact with and get him to respond which is sometimes happens a lot. It was suppose to have a main story but we all interviewed players that were not in the mods and learned they were all really bad at being interviewed no matter how hard we tried. The mod was fun to design and make come to life. I also like the spread because of
the photos we were fortunate enough to get good hockey pictures for the spread. Other mod on the page is about how one of the players broke his collarbone which is very unfortunate but a cool thing to cover and we even got this x ray picture to include with the mod. The last mod is a quiz matching the player to their skates which is a funny quiz which fits with the sport. The spread started very differently but we changed it all around a lot and it ended up being how it was. That is why I like the hockey spread the most though I like all of my other spreads a lot and how they turned out but this one stood out.
all about me
you’ve got a friend in me
meg’s essentials things that meghan uses and does everyday.
peanut butter & jams
all about me(g)
a playlist culivated by the great mind of meghan schindler for your ears to enjoy.
“When I first met Meghan I really wanted to be friends with her because she was wearing a 5 Seconds of Summer shirt and I thought she was really cool,” Chloe Hislop said. Meghan Schindler really is the best friend anyone could have. She’s supportive, sweet and able to put a smile on anyone’s face. Sharon Ruditser has been friends with Meghan for five years. “I love how nice she is and that she will go out of her way to do something for you,” Ruditser said. She’s the best listener. Meghan always makes time to talk things out with you, even if she is not free the exact moment you need her. “Meghan is a good friend because she gets me more than anyone else does. I always see things and I’m like “I wish Meghan was here” because she would get why that’s actually hilarious and she’s my favorite person to tell stories to for that same reason,” said Hislop. “My favorite memories with Meghan are
going to see The 1975 with her four time, going to Viva Phx with her, watching the sunrise at the launch pad, and going to the art museum with her,” Hislop said. A funny memory Hislop has with Meghan is when they went to the Phoenix Art Museum about Mid-June last summer and they left the museum to go and get some lunch and they started walking in the wrong direction from the museum and they ended up two miles away from where they wanted to eat and so they had to turn around and walk all the way back in the other direction. “It was so hot I think I almost died that day,” Hislop said. In ten years, Hislop hopes that she and Meghan are still best friends. “We might be in different parts of the world but I hope we’re those friends that get together every year and it’s like they were never apart,” Hislop said. story by chloe hislop
teenage bones by noirre buttercup by hippo campus wait a minute! by willow flame by sundara karma get you ft. kali uchis by daniel caesar laurel leaves by modern aquatic retro [ROUGH] by childish gambino pictures of you by miniature tigers slipping away by tanlines good lovin’ by twin peaks just cuz you can’t by pronoun still by japanese house
rockin n’ rollin
meghan shares pictures of all the concerts she has been to over the years including the 1975, halsey, hippo campus, and young the giant.
ALL STORIES/PHOTOS/INFOGRAPHICS
ALL SPREADS