For years, Leah Kauffman, a senior graphic design major, has wished that Goshen College had a yearbook. This year, she took it upon herself to create one. 

"I needed an idea for my senior project. This seemed like the perfect opportunity."

— Leah Kauffman

Goshen College published its first yearbook in 1915. For almost a century, yearbooks provided a record and history of the school. But after the 2012-13 school year, there was insufficient interest and funding to justify continuing the yearbook’s publication, so it was eventually phased out.

Kauffman and friends had discussed bringing back the yearbook, but other ideas had always pushed it to the backburner. 

At the start of this year, that finally changed. “I needed an idea for my senior project,” she said. “This year seemed like the perfect opportunity.”

Traditionally, a yearbook encompasses the entirety of a school, with pages documenting all sports and extracurricular activities and pictures of all students. 

Kauffman quickly realized that taking on a project of this magnitude would be too much for a single person.

“The yearbook I made isn’t exactly like the older ones,” she said. “It focuses more on events and people from our class specifically.”

She came up with concepts for three different types of pages for the yearbook, including superlative pages, story pages, and “day in the life” pages.

For superlative pages, Kauffman sent out a Google Form to members of the senior class, asking them to vote for peers that best exemplified certain superlative qualities. 

Some of the options included an “evil scientist” and “most likely to join an intramural sports team for the t-shirt.” The recipients of some of these superlatives were noted in the Funnies section of The Record’s March 17 issue.

For the “story” and “day in the life” themed sections, students from different activities and groups were hand-picked by her in an attempt to provide a complete representation of her senior class.

“I was thinking through people in our class and trying to pull people from different majors and activities,” she said. 

As the senior year wraps up for the class of 2022, Kauffman’s yearbook serves as a reminder of the class’s spirit and accomplishments. 

Kauffman’s yearbook was previously on display at Hershberger Gallery. During graduation festivities, it will be on display for those interested in taking a look.