VASJ yearbook editor Gina Ciariello '16 gives classmates more than just memories

When VASJ’s yearbook moderator Mr. Gary Minadeo ’74 selected Gina Ciariello as the editor of the Class of 2016 yearbook, he had no idea of her lofty goal to have the yearbook printed and delivered before the seniors graduated.

“Gina knocked me off base with her strong desire to publish the 2016 yearbook by mid-May so everyone could get their book and get signatures from friends and teachers by the end of the school year,” says Minadeo.

More than the signatures, it is the sentiments that come with them that Gina thought would make the early yearbook distribution special for the seniors.

“It’s more meaningful and in-the-moment,” Gina says. “It creates more bonds with people because everyone is signing each other’s yearbook. I also liked that underclassmen would be able to sign them, too.”

Minadeo knew that to accomplish this, it meant a deadline of March 1st, five months earlier than the typical yearbook deadlines. Minadeo knew this would not be an easy task.

“He definitely looked at me with worried eyes but said, ‘if that’s what you want and you’re willing to work for it, then we’ll do it.’ And we did,” Gina says.

Minadeo selected Gina as editor as a result of her experience serving on the yearbook staff during her junior year.

“Gina was the only yearbook staffer that had experience building a yearbook,” Minadeo says. “Even I had no experience, and we were blessed by that experience and the true desire to build a quality product.”

Gina was eager to serve as editor.

“I was pretty excited,” Gina says. “I wanted to jump in and get everything organized for it. I knew it would be an exciting project.”

It was both exciting and exhausting.

The 2016 yearbook wasn’t the only project on the agenda for the year. The students were also completing the 2015 yearbook and working with the Class of 1990 to complete their yearbook 25 years after graduation.

Gina would be overseeing it all.

“She jumped right in getting the 2016 yearbook laid out to get her class moving,” Minadeo says. “Then I informed her that she had to train senior editors Aysia Kemp and Stanley Clayton so they could build the 1990 yearbook in their class period and seniors Tiyan March and Johnathan Carter so they could finish the 2015 yearbook in their class. She simply smiled and said ‘okay’ in a pure Viking spirit.”

Even the yearbook company, Jostens, was concerned about the task of completing three yearbooks in one year.

“Our Jostens’ representative, Alex Intihar, a fantastically positive help and supporter, rolled his eyes and said that one yearbook by March is a tough order, but then to add two other yearbooks by November 1 may just be a bit too much,” Minadeo says. “He had never seen it done.”

They explained their reservations to Gina and looked to her for comment.

Without hesitation she responded with a bright smile and said, “Okay. We will get all done.’”

And thanks to her hard work and leadership, they did.

“It was definitely worth it to see that everyone appreciates it and all the memories that are in it,” Gina says. “So it was worth all of the tasks that I had to do. To see everyone’s reactions and hear everyone say ‘I’m so proud of you,’ and ‘this is a great yearbook,’ is definitely rewarding. I am just extremely, extremely thankful that I got the opportunity to do this and that everyone will remember that I did this.”

Gina set a goal so that she and her classmates could fill their yearbooks with signatures before graduation and she made that goal happen.

VASJ yearbook editor Gina Ciariello '16 proudly displays signatures collected in her yearbook.

As she pages through her yearbook, looking at the signatures she collected from every single one of her classmates and nearly every person in the entire school, she realizes the book contains more than just names.

Gina’s yearbook, and the yearbooks of her classmates, are filled with more than signatures. They are filled with warm wishes and sentiments from teachers and friends that illustrate the close bond that is created in the Viking Village.

“It makes me feel like this is a school where you actually create a family and not just friends,” Gina says.

Similar to the memories permanently archived in a yearbook, the love and support that comes from being a member of the Viking family will last forever.