Catching Up With Graduated Members of Yearbook and Journalism

Anna Norris works at her desk during journalism class in the 2025/26 school year. Norris was a three-year member of The Powderhorn staff and served as the Editor-in-Chief her senior year. Photo by: Chloe Greer

Carrie Bradbury, Senior Editor and Review Desk Lead

Photographing late night sporting events, conducting interviews, and rushing to meet deadlines are all to be expected when a student joins the staff of one of Watauga High School’s publication programs. In yearbook and journalism class, students are challenged with a heavy workload and an even heavier responsibility to be one member of a vast team. But how is this going to influence students post high school?

Charles Stumb, who is now a photographer for The Daily Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina, experienced this challenge first hand. Stumb served as the Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook program during the 2025-26 school year and was a three-year member of the program. 

“I think journalism in both high school and college is a great way to learn about your school,” Stumb said. “Through the yearbook, I learned so much about different areas of the school.”

In his time as Editor-in-Chief, Stumb mentioned that the position prepared him for college, especially as it relates to his work on The Daily Tar Heel. Stumb has only just started in the program but is already noticing some key differences between high school and college. 

“I was doing a lot of the choosing of what things to cover in high school, but college forces you to get outside your comfort zone and cover this very specific thing,” Stumb said. “It is a cool experience, and you get to grow in your skills.”

In addition to yearbook, Stumb’s participation in the Student Council helped to prepare him for college but in a slightly different way. While still having a successful four years in the program, Stumb was also faced with the challenge of defeat.

Stumb ran for Student Council leadership positions for his sophomore and junior years, but it wasn’t until senior year that he was given the spot. The contrast between Editor-in-Chief of yearbook and regular member of the Student Council gave Stumb a more well-rounded understanding of what his position on The Daily Tar Heel would be like.

“I wasn't in a leadership position until my senior year in Student Council. I think it sort of taught me that you can do a lot of important work not necessarily in leadership,” Stumb said. “I'm really excited to work on The Daily Tar Heel, not on leadership, just being a staff member and helping everyone in an organization. It is really important to be comfortable with loss.”

Elijah Bishop served as a member of the journalism and yearbook staff for three years and was the Editor-in-Chief of Watauga 10. Bishop attends North Carolina State University and is a member of their student newspaper The Technician.

“My position on Watauga 10 and being in the journalism setting at The Powderhorn was super helpful in knowing how to build connections, build relationships and get on the same level with somebody,” Bishop said. “I want to understand where they're coming from and try to get the best story I can out of someone just from a conversation.”

Bishop’s time on publication staff at the high school was largely impacted by the influence of his father. As an employee at Samaritan's Purse, Bishop's father instilled within him the importance of serving others, an ideal that has stuck with Bishop through his work in publication. 

“I was inspired by him to continue writing, and to write things that would really leave an impact, things that would link to others and highlight their success, accomplishments and achievements,” Bishop said. “I think that kind of changed how I write, to think about how a story can help another person, rather than myself.”

Bishop was well-known for his sports coverage in his time at Watauga High School. By combining his skills in photography, video editing, and social media, he was able to produce a large amount of sports related content for both the journalism and yearbook programs. 

“Career wise, I think I want to go into something with sports, either game day operations or facilities management,” Bishop said. “If it's not that physical aspect, it would be some kind of creative media.”

Bishop credits the various publishing organizations that he has been affiliated with for preparing him for a career after college. Whether it be in sports media or not, journalism has taught him useful skills which he will use for the rest of his life.

“I will have to continue to be able to write journalistically,” Bishop said. “Even if it's not a creative media thing, those writing skills are still going to come in handy.”

Piper Saunders, who is the multimedia director of Wake Forest’s school newspaper, the Old Gold and Black, also credits her time on the yearbook staff for getting her into the position in the program. 

Saunders was the Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook her senior year of high school which challenged both her photography and leadership skills. 

“I don't think I would be at Wake Forest if it hadn't been for yearbook, honestly,” Saunders said. “I think it prepared me to come out of my shell and lead well. I'm really grateful for that experience.”

Saunders is back in the position of Editor in college, and it was her high school experience working on yearbook that prepared her for the role. Being in charge of one's peers is something that Saunders has navigated once before, which is how she gained confidence in the role. 

“I think yearbook is the most professional experience you can really have in high school,” Saunders said. “I learned how to make the classroom fun, but then also get our work done. It taught me how to deal with deadlines, which I now have to deal with every single week rather than like once a month.”

The position of Editor-in-Chief pushes students to be leaders in the classroom and prepares them for leadership roles later in life, but it also shows to an outsider that individual’s success.

For Anna Norris, graduated Editor-in-Chief of the Powderhorn, the title has helped her beyond high school and was an important factor in her application for The Old Gold and Black newspaper at Wofford College. 

“I think being an editor of The Powderhorn really helped my application stand out, and having the titles throughout the years, like Junior Editor, Sports Desk Lead, and then Editor-in-Chief, it showed a really strong progression of how my skills have been fine tuned over the last three years of writing,” Norris said.

As a member of the editorial staff of The Powderhorn, Norris attended weekly desk lead meetings. She continues to do this now in college as well. In addition to the structure of class, Norris finds the foundation upon which the two programs are built to be fundamentally the same.

“Our weekly meetings are structured very similarly to a high school newspaper,” Norris said. “Having the hierarchical system also helped me because I was able to start from the bottom and work my way up slowly as I've progressed as a writer, and it is the exact same way in college. So now I am starting over as a staff writer.”

For Norris, starting over as a staff writer is not a demotion, rather a chance to grow as a writer and return to the parts of journalism that she fell in love with in the first place. Looking to the future, Norris strives to return to the Editor-in-Chief position that she held in high school.

“I would love to be an editor. My goal is to gain more leadership throughout my next few years with The Old Golden and Black,” Norris said. “There are so many more positions in this college newspaper than there were in high school. 
There's a lot of layout design positions and a lot of positions that you can gain over time.”

There have been some minor differences that Norris has noticed between her work in high school versus college. While working on her first story of the year, featuring two leaders of a study abroad program, Norris was challenged with longer interviews and shorter deadlines.

“The interview was much more lengthy than any of my high school interviews,” Norris said. “The interview itself was much more professional and serious, and I met them in a coffee shop rather than an office or a classroom.”

While the workload might be heavier and the expectations higher, Norris is still looking to the future with excitement and is finding much joy in her position on staff.

“I am most excited about gaining the opportunity to better know my professors and exploring my campus through a journalistic lens,” Norris said. “
I think it's a truly special experience to be able to become a better writer and a better student.”