(image taken from http://www.zpsd.org)

Zuni High School in Zuni, New Mexico has recently partnered with YearBook Alive in the production of their annual digital yearbooks.

Zuni High School is a public high school. It’s a relatively new school, established in 1997. Most of the classes are small, which means students get more individual attention and help. During pre-registration for their freshmen year, all students develop a four-year plan for graduation.

It’s an extremely proud progressive school and we’re happy to have them as part of our YearBook Alive family of schools!

(Click on the image to see how easy it is to create your own digital yearbook)

(Image taken from http://hs.houstonisd.org/Furrhs)

A new year and a new partner for YearBook Alive! Furr Senior High School in Houston is capturing their students’ memories is by preserving them with a digital supplement to their annual printed yearbook. With a digital yearbook, schools are able to add thousands of photos and hours of videos and music to their yearbooks, memories that would otherwise be lost.

Furr Senior High School was established in 1961 in what was then known as Oates Prairie. Since then it’s undergone tremendous changes. It’s considered a very progressive school and since receiving a 20 million dollar grant from the Carnegie Foundation it has been re-thinking traditional high school organization and curriculum.

YearBook Alive is ecstatic to have reached a partnership with such a proud school!

YearBook Alive is celebrating the holiday season and kicking off the new year with an exciting contest. One lucky school that purchases their YearBook Alive license between Jan 1st and Feb 28th will automatically be entered into a draw to win a package of aerial photographs of their school campus taken by a professional photographer in a helicopter! Have you ever wondered what your school looks like from high above? Interested in getting a bird’s eye view? Now you can!

The photos can be displayed in your digital yearbook, on your school walls, wherever or however you want! To enter into this draw, simply purchase your YearBook Alive license between Jan 1st and Feb 28th and fill out the necessary information in the form provided. We’ll be contacting the winner in early March with information on how to claim their prize. Good luck to all participants!

(photo taken from http://www.tourism.tas.gov.au)

Even though we have partnerships with schools, clubs and organizations from all over the world, we still receive requests from the most exotic and far-flung places in the world. So when we were contacted by Distance Education in Tasmania, we felt compelled to share it in our blog. The largely unspoiled natural environment Tasmania, an Australian state, is home to over 500,000 people. Nearly 40% of the island is protected as National Parks and World Heritage Sites.

Distance Education Tasmania is for students from Kindergarten to Grade 10 who are unable to attend regular classes because of isolation, illness, disability and any other things that may exclude them from being able to attend. It’s a school that’s there to teach students when they aren’t able to be easily taught. It’s an incredible commitment to education and we’re very proud to have them using YearBook Alive as their exclusive yearbook software.

(photo taken from http://www.youngtownschool.org)

YearBook Alive is very happy to announce a new partnership with the Youngtown Public Charter School in Youngtown, Arizona. The YPCS is a forward thinking school that “is designed to provide a safe, supportive and positive work environment where students are free to explore and experience the joy of learning to their highest potential both academically and as responsible citizens in in our diverse and technological society.”

The YPCS features smaller than usual class sizes, which they feel improves student performance. In short, it’s a place that fosters and nurtures creative and academic performance and YearBook Alive is ecstatic to have reached a partnership with such a progressive institution.

(photo taken from http://www.nyma.org)

YearBook Alive, the worldwide leader in digital yearbook software, has launched their newest software release in an effort to aid ailing school budgets. Cuts to education budgets across North America have forced schools to look for new and innovative ways to raise funds and avoid grave deficits. Without supplementary funding many schools each year have to cancel programs, lay off instructors or close down entirely. The newspapers are full of heartbreaking stories about schools that have had to make tough decisions in order to save some money:

• In Wisconsin, Crestwood High School can’t afford to bring their cheerleaders or band along for out of town football games.
• In California, Desert Hot Springs High School has had to take its school buses off the road, leaving some students with a two hour walk to school.
• In Michigan, some teachers have been asked to pay more for their health insurance.
• In Hawaii, Molokai High School has had to shorten its school year to save money by closing its doors every other Friday.

These are only some of the stories that are appearing in our newspapers everyday. Traditional fundraising events like bake sales, walkathons and car washes are attracting fewer and fewer donations because people are holding onto their money more tightly during the current economic instability. And the problem extends beyond the public school system. Colleges and Universities across the continent are finding it increasingly difficult to operate at a profit. Recently, Baruch College in New York declared that it couldn’t even afford to have yearbooks printed for their graduates. They currently owe their yearbook publisher, Jostens, $17,200, an amount they simply cannot afford.

With so many obstacles to overcome, forward thinking schools are looking to technology for ideas and have found that publishing memories in the form of photos, video and music through digital yearbooks and scrapbooks is a fun, interactive way to raise some significant money.

YearBook Alive has partnered with over four-hundred schools from the United States, Canada, the UK and dozens of others countries to help them raise funds through their annual yearbook. Recently, the New York Military Academy as well as US Military forces based in Iran have partnered with YearBook Alive to preserve their memories of training and fighting for their country.

Traditional yearbooks are expensive to produce. Not only is printing costly, but the time and effort required to compile and format a yearbook is significant. Digital yearbooks are much cheaper and easier to create. With YearBook Alive, schools pay an annual licensing fee of $499 USD and are free to produce as many copies of their yearbook as they like. Consider this example: after factoring in the cost of software and CD’s or DVD’s, a school of 900 students selling the yearbook for $15 each, would make over $12,000 in profit! So not only are schools saving money by cutting out the exorbitant printing costs of a traditional yearbook, they’re also raising money by selling their new digital yearbooks for a much higher profit.

Where some schools are really cashing in though, is by not only using YearBook Alive to create their annual yearbook, but also as a way to create and share other events throughout the school year that may interest their students. Big events like class trips, dances, academic achievements or sports championships can all be captured on a disc and sold to students as a way to preserve memories while raising funds. The same goes for clubs, sports teams, or any other special interest group. Anything and everything associated with the school year is acceptable for use. Essentially, the potential for fundraising is limitless. And because there are no strict publishing deadlines with the software, schools are able to capture events late in the school year, like exams, prom and graduation and include them in their yearbook.

Despite the upside, some schools just aren’t ready to fully break from tradition and begin adopting digital yearbooks altogether. Some of these schools have found success in producing a yearbook that includes a digital supplement. Publishing a pared down yearbook and accompanying it with a CD or DVD of photos, videos and music that ensures memories are saved and production costs are minimized.

(photo taken from http://newvisionamez.org)

YearBook Alive isn’t only being used by schools. Although traditionally associated with high schools and universities, many different organizations, clubs and community groups are now looking to digital yearbooks as a way to document their cherished memories. Not excluded from this are community churches, and one such church is the Kyles Temple African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Sacramento, California who use YearBook Alive to create their digital yearbooks.

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church has a long history in the United States and was founded in 1796 by black parishioners who were discriminated against in their own churches. It has grown rapidly since the end of the American Civil War to become the faith of over 1.4 million people worldwide, with most believers residing in the United States.

The Kyles Temple AME Zion Church is very involved with both it’s parishioners and the community and can now share all of their events and activities through their annual yearbooks. And because YearBook Alive digital yearbooks are a fraction of the cost of traditional yearbooks, it is affordable.

(photo taken from http://www.vvuhsd.k12.ca.us)

The Goodwill Education Center in Victorville, California is the latest school to partner up with YearBook Alive to create stylish and affordable yearbooks for its students. The school had received many offers from other yearbook companies, but instead wanted their students to learn how to create their own yearbook with YearBook Alive software. This is the second year that the high school will be producing a digital yearbook with YearBook Alive. The introduction of digital yearbooks has transformed a long-standing school tradition in Victorville, a tradition that is changing throughout the country, and indeed the world.

YearBook Alive is incredibly simple and easy to use. An project can be completed in as little as three steps. First, build your project by adding thousands of photos and hours of video and music. Second, choose a professionally designed style template for your yearbook. Finally, copy your project to a CD or DVD and you’re done! That’s all it takes!

(photo taken http://www.pgss.sd57.bc.ca)

YearBook Alive is very proud to announce a new partnership with a school from our home province of British Columbia, Prince George Secondary School. The Polars, as their students, faculty and alumni are called, have embraced technology in a big way, as is evidenced by their exhaustive school website and their utilization of YearBook Alive software. In fact, the support the school has shown for our digital yearbooks has impressed even us! They have gone so far as to include an upload tool on their website that enables their students to add their own photos to a database for use in their annual digital yearbook. Talk about involving the student body!

When we heard this news, we couldn’t help but get excited! It means that another school has realized the potential of YearBook Alive not just as an affordable alternative to print yearbooks, but also as a more creative and collaborative alternative. It’s truly encouraging to see that more and more schools are beginning to understand the value of digital yearbooks and are coming up with new and better ways to use YearBook Alive.