ENTREPRENEURSHIP

It’s hard to trust an average 17-year-old with work that isn't associated with a high school. Yet, we are expected to have real-world knowledge and work skills when we join the workforce. With this in mind, I knew I had to market myself. I posted an ad on Craigslist offering my graphic design skills. Within a week, a local pizzeria hired me to do logo work and a local health company hired me to design labels for their products. I’m proud to call myself a commissioned designer before the age of 18. (See left.)

I've become the go-to person for flyers around the school. Shown below are some of the ads I've made to advertise some of the clubs I am in. (See right.)

Senior Ads in the yearbook are a huge bulk of our proceeds and allow us to sell our yearbook for a price lower than a typical book of our size ($45 for a 316-page book.) I was concerned this year that we would have record-low ads because of trends from previous years. In the fall, I launched a campaign featuring our staff's seniors. We made posters (pictured below on left) to hang up around the school. Every week leading up to the deadline for the ads, we tweeted out the photos on the poster as a reminder. Because that saw success, I wanted to recreate Throwback Thursday/Transformation Tuesday photos of our students for our Senior Ads Divider (right). To do so, we hung up posters asking for throwback photos. We received a large number of submissions and chose the best for the divider.