PHOTO PROVIDED Members of the 2021 yearbook staff at Bellefonte High School are, in no particular order, Kaitlyn Berkey, Kate Harman, Edward Henry, Madison Melius, Hailey Miller, Kierra Narehood, Haylie Rimmey, Lauren Skrzycki. Andrew Weigold is the yearbook advisor.

BELLEFONTE — Bellefonte Area High School’s yearbook program has achieved the Jostens 2021 National Yearbook Program of Excellence award at the Gold Level. Jostens is the leading producer of yearbooks and student-created content.

The National Yearbook Program of Excellence recognizes engaging yearbooks that reflect a broad representation of the student body while helping students develop 21st century skills such as communication, collaboration, and information and communication technologies (ICT) literacy.

The Bellefonte Area High School award-winning yearbook program is led by Kaitlyn Berkey, editor, under the direction of Andrew Weigold, the yearbook adviser.

“I have been the Yearbook Adviser at Bellefonte for eight years Each year our staff embarks on a journey to create a book that encompasses many events throughout the year as well as showcase our school spirit on each page of the book. Our staff uses new techniques in order to finish the yearbook on time and also gets to add their own creative spin on their pages. We wanted to add history to this year’s book as well as keep a theme based book with more journalism in it than year’s past. I am so proud of this year’s group who helped to win this award,” Weigold said.

Jostens’ National Yearbook Program of Excellence Awards are presented twice a year, in spring and in fall based on the yearbook’s arrival date at the school. The award was presented to the Bellefonte Area High School yearbook program for achieving defined criteria in between one and three of the following categories: creating an inclusive yearbook, generating school engagement, and successfully managing the yearbook creation process.

“Jostens is proud to recognize those individuals who have created an exceptional yearbook for their school and community,” said Tammy Whitaker, Jostens VP and COO Yearbook Division. “These schools did an exceptional job on multiple levels, despite the challenges presented by this school year. Yearbooks are a critical part of capturing and telling a school’s story, and Jostens is dedicated to supporting yearbook staff members as they do their important work.”

Founded in 1897, Jostens has produced school yearbooks for over 60 years. Schools rely on Jostens and their local Jostens representatives to provide a combination of journalism education and technology tools to deliver a learning experience that helps students develop 21 st century skills in journalism, photography, writing and design, leadership and business while creating the permanent record of the school year. Jostens invests in state-of-the-art technology, best in class service, educational curriculum and award winning print manufacturing platforms to plan, design, build and produce yearbooks.