By Becky St. Clair

Thirteen academies participated in this year’s publication workshop at Pacific Union College. Created to inspire and offer guidance to young publication managers and their teams, PubWorkshop has long been a popular event for many Adventist high schools in the Pacific Union. 

Attendees are editors of school yearbooks and newspapers, who bring their sponsors and teams for three days of brainstorming, learning, and peer engagement. Sessions during PubWorkshop cover topics such as headline- and caption-writing, design best practice, team-building, video editing, news writing, photojournalism, project management, leadership, yearbook storytelling, and more.

“This year’s experience was another great opportunity to showcase to our academies PUC’s talented faculty in the Visual Arts, English, and Communication departments,” says Milbert Mariano, academic dean and VP for academic administration for PUC. “We were pleased to also continue to incorporate and highlight our worship and praise talent on campus.”

David Carreon, worship pastor at the PUC Church, coordinated worship and music for the attending academies.

Teachers, sponsors, and students continue to find PubWorkshop a valuable resource for improving the quality and efficiency of their teams and productions. These days, newspapers and yearbooks are more than just words and pictures printed on paper—even those produced at schools. Events such as PubWorkshop allow students and their sponsors to explore creative ideas for connecting with and engaging their fellow students and staff through their school publications.

“I liked that I got to spend time with people who have the same interests as me in design and photography,” says Sydney Chan, yearbook editor for Mountain View Academy. “It was very educational talking to others and sharing ideas. I got to make many friends and I learned that Comic Sans is not the best font to use when creating such an important publication. I hope to apply what I learned at Pub in our yearbook we are currently working on.”

Comments made on the post-event survey included appreciation for learning to work as a team, the variety of creative ideas, interesting and professional presenters, learning skills they can use even after graduation, building relationships, and more. 

“Publication Workshop never fails to be a valuable time for learning and cultivating skills that are worthwhile for the yearbook staff,” says Laura Helms, yearbook advisor for Mountain View Academy. “My students have always come away with new ideas and friends and are more cohesive because of the workshop. This experience helps us create our best publications.”

After 14 years serving as director of PubWorkshop, Mariano is stepping away from coordinating PubWorkshop after this year, choosing to focus more on his new role as academic dean and VP for academic administration, a role he assumed this summer. New director Desirae Bach, is also a new design professor in the department of visual arts at PUC.

“I’ve been incredibly blessed to have served as director and am looking forward to seeing it grow and thrive under Desirae Bach’s leadership,” says Mariano.

“We are very excited to have Desirae take on a leadership role as the director of PubWorkshop,” says Maria Rankin-Brown, associate academic VP for PUC, 3-year co-director of, and a long-time participant in PubWorkshop. “She brings a wealth of design knowledge and has new ideas that will benefit future Publication Workshops.”

Many of the schools that participate—some from as far away as southern California—attend year after year, bringing new yearbook and newspaper teams in to learn from and be inspired by professional presenters at PubWorkshop. 

This year’s keynote speaker was Andy Bishop, a 2010 PUC communication and business administration graduate and digital media specialist with nearly a decade of experience. Bishop has filled roles such as a news reporter for an NBC affiliate in Texas and a digital media correspondent for Major League Baseball. 

“This year’s Publication Workshop demonstrated the academy students’ and their sponsors’ dedication to working hard to improve their publications,” Rankin-Brown says. “The Publication Workshop presenters provided professional, high-quality presentations for the academy participants. The sponsors set high expectations and their students worked hard to meet them.”

Publication Workshop 2020 will take place on September 8-10; as always, on the PUC campus. For information on registration, lodging, fees, and any other details, bookmark publicationworkshop.squarespace.com for the latest updates and information.

“We are so pleased with the way that the PUC campus collaborated to ensure that the participants all had a successful experience,” says Rankin-Brown. “The students who participated were so engaged and enthusiastic that it was a joy to work with them. We look forward to seeing that dedication from all involved again in 2020.”