Yearbook Chat with Jim

Welcome to another exciting Adviser of Note episode of "Yearbook Chat with Jim." In this episode, Jim Jordan talks with the legendary Brit Taylor, CJE, a star of Florida scholastic journalism with 30 years of experience at Hagerty High School in Oviedo, Florida. Brit is a passionate educator, dedicated to helping high school students grow and thrive in the world of publications.Brit shares his journey from junior high involvement in publications to becoming a full-time journalism and media production teacher. We also delve into the details of Hagerty High School's yearbook program, including its size, design and sales.Brit's enthusiasm shines through as he recounts his own high school experience and his early fascination with journalism. His transition from aspiring professional journalist to an educator is inspiring and insightful, with valuable advice for first-year advisers.As Brit navigates the challenges and evolving landscape of scholastic journalism, he emphasizes the importance of building a supportive community of advisers and staying flexible to meet the changing needs of students.Discover the moments that make Brit proud of his work and witness his dedication to helping students find their talents. This podcast is filled with wisdom for advisers and educators alike, with lessons, inspiration and a deep love for the world of student publications.Join us as we celebrate Brit Taylor as the Walsworth Yearbooks Adviser of Note for October and dive into the world of scholastic journalism and yearbook advising with this icon.

In the world of yearbooks, Susan Massy is a pretty big deal. Her program at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Overland Park, Kansas, is NSPA's most-winning program of their prestigious Pacemaker awards. Susan herself has received the JEA Lifetime Achievement Award, CSPA's Gold Key, and was the 1999 National Yearbook Adviser of the Year. The Kansas High School Press Association has even dubbed their Student Journalist of the Year award the Susan Massy Award. But Susan doesn't really care about all those awards. As she tells Jim in the interview, “it just feels like you're talking about somebody else. I don't see myself as that person.” What she really cares about is building her program and helping her students live up to their potential. “I don't necessarily care whether we win an award this year. But what I care is that they think they've put out a better book than last year.” And now, after 45 years in the classroom, Susan Massy is retiring. But that doesn't mean she's leaving the yearbook world behind. Her summer is already booked with yearbook workshops and conferences. We haven't seen the last of her. In this episode, Susan chats with host Jim Jordan about her teaching career, scholastic journalism and what it took to build her program. 

Jim McCrossen is a mild-mannered yearbook adviser at Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, Kansas. Behind his gentle demeanor is a person with a wealth of interesting life experiences and a passion for making the world a better place. One way he works to improve the world around him is through his role as a teacher and scholastic journalism adviser. After working as a photojournalist in southern California during the 80s – where he covered things like the 1984 summer Olympics, President Ronald Reagan and a visit from the Pope – McCrossen moved back to his home state of Kansas to pursue a teaching degree. He's been at Blue Valley Northwest since it opened 30 years ago, and the insights he's gained about teaching and yearbooks are invaluable. 

In this episode, Jim chats with Tucker Love, from Shawnee Mission South High School in Shawnee, Kansas. Tucker is in his fifth year of advising the Heritage yearbook, and his staff were recently named NSPA Pacemaker Award finalists. 

In this episode, host Jim Jordan chats with April van Buren, from Madison East High School in Madison, Wisconsin. April was named an NSPA Pioneer in 2022, NSPA awards to journalism educators who make substantial contributions to high school journalism programs and scholastic journalism education outside their primary employment. They discuss April's journey as an educator, how she finds success at the scholastic journalism programs she instructs, and they even sneak in a quick side conversation about roller derby. 

In this episode, Jim Jordan chats with Ben Langevin, the yearbook adviser at Oviedo High School in Oviedo, Florida. Ben was recently named a JEA Rising Star and his staff published an especially noteworthy yearbook in 2022. 

Welcome to the sixth season of Yearbook Chat with Jim! In this season premiere, host Jim Jordan chats with Gary Lundgren, from the National Scholastic Press Association, about the state of yearbooks and scholastic journalism. 

Jason Davis has had quite the journey. He grew up in Minnesota, but now lives in Arizona. His first job was as a fry cook in his family's restaurant, then as a professional journalist, and now is a teacher. He had no yearbook experience when he started advising, but how has one of the best middle school/junior high yearbook programs in the country. In this episode, Jason chats with Jim Jordan about his life and yearbook journey. He also shares excellent advice for fellow yearbookers. And, because it's important to Jason and Jim that people feel comfortable reaching out to them, they shared their emails. jason.davis@goaj.orgjim.jordan@walsworth.com

Host Jim Jordan recently discovered that seven of the JEA State Journalists of the Year winners all have yearbook in their resumes AND their schools published their books with Walsworth Yearbooks. He believes strongly that yearbook students are also true scholastic journalists – just as much as newspaper, online and broadcast – and deserve this kind of recognition. On this episode, Jim chats with three of those State Journalists of the Year. Lucy Bickel, ELCO High School, Myerstown, PennsylvaniaKaitlin Reynolds, Millard West High School, Omaha, NebraskaElizabeth Bunnell, southside High School, Fort Smith, ArkansasLucy is a four-year yearbook staffer. She has written for Idea file magazine and has been on this podcast with her dad, Jon, who is her adviser. Her book from 2021 recently earned a CSPA Silver Crown. Lucy plans to attend Penn State University in the fall.Kaitlin has been a member of the Prowler yearbook staff for three years, and has also been part of online, broadcast and livestream publications as well. She plans on attending the University of Kansas in the fall. Elizabeth is the editor of the yearbook and also writes for the online newspaper and is known to take a photo or two for all the publications. She plans on attending the University of Arkansas. 

Host Jim Jordan recently discovered that six of the JEA State Journalists of the Year winners all have yearbook in their resumes AND their schools published their books with Walsworth Yearbooks. He believes strongly that yearbook students are also true scholastic journalists – just as much as newspaper, online and broadcast – and deserve this kind of recognition. On this episode, Jim chats with three of those State Journalists of the Year. Annie Brown, Homestead High School, Mequon, WisconsinAudrey Culver, Liberty North High School, Liberty, MissouriAsher Montgomery, Hillsboro High School, Hillsboro, FloridaAnnie is a four-year staffer on The Highlander Online and the Tartan yearbook. She does social media for both publications and she recently finished her yearbook with just six staffers. In the future, she wants to be a health journalist and a global health advocate. Audrey is a four-year yearbook staffer and a two-year editor-in-chief of the Ayrie yearbook. The 2021 book recently received a Silver Crown award from CSPA. She plans on majoring in journalism with a minor in religious studies at the University Of Arkansas. Asher has been a member of the Red & Black school newspaper for three and a half years and and she's been on the yearbook staff for two years. She's been published in The New York Times and USA Today. So far she's been accepted into Harvard, Northwestern and Wellesley and will be making that decision soon.

Monica Rodriguez – known to her students as M-rod – is the yearbook adviser at Gulliver Preparatory Upper School in Pinecrest, Florida. All of Monica's three staffs – the Reflections literary magazine, the Raider Voice news and and print magazine, and the Raider yearbook – received Crown and Pacemaker Finalist recognition in 2021. It's particularly exciting as this is the first time the Raider yearbook has earned Pacemaker recognition from NSPA. She took time to chat with Jim about her career as both a teacher and a yearbook sales rep, and what it means to see her students receive the recognition they worked so hard for. 

When NSPA announced the three 2021 recipients of their prestigious Pioneer Award and Jim saw long-time friend Leland Mallett on the list, he knew he wanted Leland to come on the podcast again. In this episode, Jim and Leland chat about what this award means to Leland, how the yearbook world has changed over his 22-year career, and what the last two years have been like while they produced a yearbook during COVID. If you'd like to see some of the covers and spreads discussed in the episode, this year's cover, last year's cover, the shoe spread, and the giant type spread can be viewed on our website. 

When JEA announced their 2021 Rising Stars and three Walsworth Yearbooks advisers were on the list, Jim Jordan knew he had to get them on his podcast. His third and final interview was with Carly Gates, from Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida.If you haven't already, be sure to check out the previous interviews with Rising Stars Laurel Wicke and Joanna Chadwick. 

When JEA announced their 2021 Rising Stars and three Walsworth Yearbooks advisers were on the list, Jim Jordan knew he had to get them on his podcast. His second interview was with Joanna Chadwick, the yearbook adviser at Derby High School in Derby, Kansas. If you haven't already, be sure to check out the previous interview with Rising Star Laurel Wicke, and stay tuned for the third and final JEA Rising Star episode. 

When JEA announced their 2021 Rising Stars and three Walsworth Yearbooks advisers were on the list, Jim Jordan knew he had to get them on his podcast. His first interview was with Laurel Wicke, the yearbook adviser at Drake Middle School in Arvada, Colorado. Stay tuned this week for interviews with two more JEA Rising Stars. 

Karen Johnson, MJE, always knew she wanted to be a teacher and a coach. When she started college, she realized that social studies (which often seems to go hand-in-hand with coaching) wasn't really for her. It wasn't long before she switched to English, then added a journalism minor. Since then, she's been a yearbook adviser at tiny schools and at large schools. She's working on her sixth book at Kearney High School, and has helped build a strong program at the school. In addition to this interview, you can learn more about Karen on our blog. About your host, Jim Jordan: Jim Jordan is a Special Consultant for Walsworth Yearbooks. He is former yearbook adviser at Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks, California. Jim was the 1996 JEA Yearbook Adviser of the Year, and shares his expertise with students and advisers at workshops and conventions across the country. Jim is the lead mentor for Walsworth's Adviser Mentor Program.

Bobby Hawthorne is a master storyteller and journalist. He's well known in the scholastic journalism world, and can frequently be found teaching at journalism workshops and seminars. In this episode, Hawthorne and your host, Jim Jordan, share what it takes to be a good journalist and tell a great story in your yearbook. You can find more episodes of Yearbook Chat with Jim on the Walsworth Yearbooks website. 

Elizabeth Luna sort of happened into graphic design, then wanted more, and now she's the yearbook adviser at a school that just won its first Pacemaker. She shared their journey over the last several years, and what it's like being the adviser of a small yearbook program.  You can read more about this Adviser of Note on our blog. 

Here it is! The official 50th episode! And what a great person to interview. Ronna Sparks-Woodward loves yearbooks. She knew while she was still in high school that she wanted to be a teacher, and specifically that she wanted to be a yearbook adviser. She has turned her passion for a yearbooks into a career, and shares the insights she's gained on this 50th episode of "Yearbook Chat with Jim." 

It's our 50th episode! Today, we're sharing a mini-episode to reflect on where this podcast has taken us since we launched in 2018.  Thank you to everyone who has been on this podcast journey with Jim and the Walsworth Yearbooks Podcast Network. 

A few weeks ago, host Jim Jordan read two articles on the Walsworth Yearbooks blog about covering controversial topics in a yearbook. Those two articles were written by a father/daughter yearbook team, which sparked the idea for this episode. Jim Jordan was a yearbook adviser for 35 years, and during that time all three of his children were on his staff. So he decided to reach out to the authors of those articles, Jon and Lucy Bickell, from Eastern Lebanon County High School in Meyerstown, Pennsylvania. He also asked his friend Brit Taylor, CJE, whose daughter, Maggie, is currently the Editor-in-chief of their yearbook staff. These two dynamic duos shared what it's like to work together with a close family member, and the extra challenges they faced working to create a yearbook during a global pandemic. We hope you enjoy. 

In this extra special episode, Ask Mike and Yearbook Chat with Jim team up to talk about promoting your yearbook! Hosts Mike Taylor, CJE, and Jim Jordan are joined by three members of the Walsworth marketing team, Jenica Hallman, CJE, Jimmy Gilligan and Sarah Scott. They share tips for writing press releases, ideas for promoting your yearbook, and why you want to promote your 2021 yearbook more than ever before!Listen to the episode, then share your marketing with us! Send press releases to mike.taylor@walsworth.com or jim.jordan@walsworth.com, and be sure to tag Walsworth Yearbooks in any social media promotions you post. We would love to share your work. Find us on Instagram @walsworthyearbooks, Twitter @yearbookforever, and Facebook.

Tiffany Kopcak was recently named JEA's H.L. Hall Yearbook Adviser of the Year Special Recognition Adviser. Her staff's 2020 yearbook was one of host Jim Jordan's favorite volumes, and they're known for their willingness to go in new directions for coverage and design. Listen in to hear more about her love of her home state Virginia and how her yearbook staff has been working through the challenges posed by the past two school years.

Patty Gomez has led an interesting life, and it's given her a unique perspective on education. She is the yearbook adviser at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was recently named a JEA Rising Star for her commitment to scholastic journalism. In this interview, Patty shares a little bit about growing up in Venezuela, her work in chemistry, and why it's so important to balance STEM education with the arts. This is the second of a two-part Rising Star series. Be sure to check out host Jim Jordan's interview with Rising Star Heather Rice in the previous episode.

For the first episode of 2021, host Jim Jordan interviews JEA Rising Star Heather Rice, from One School of the Arts in Longwood, Florida. Rising Star trophies are awarded to advisers who are in their first five years of advising and have shown great dedication to scholastic journalism. Heather took over a yearbook program that had previously been run by parents, and in only five years helped bring it to an award-winning level.

In this episode, host Jim Jordan chats with November 2020 Adviser of Note Emily Arnold. Listen to her story about how she built two different award-winning publications programs and how she is coping with in-person teaching and advising this year.

On today’s episode, host Jim Jordan discusses the ways yearbook staffs continue to manage, create and sometimes even thrive in the midst of a pandemic. He spoke with five yearbook advisers from four high schools all over the country to listen to their stories about yearbook during COVID-19. Ashley Dias, Americas High School, El Paso, Texas Susan Colyer, Southside High School, Fort Smith, Arkansas Kaitlin Beaudet and Michelle Kuebler, Williamsville North High School, Williamsville, New York Hillary Currier, Tigard High School, Tigard, Oregon

Susan McNulty became a yearbook adviser early in her career as a teacher, but budget cuts tore her away from the role. Years later, she took over the J.W. Mitchell yearbook program the same year her daughter served as editor-in-chief (the outgoing adviser had assigned the roles before McNulty took over). She took over a strong yearbook program, and books under her leadership have won recognition from all over, including the All-American from NSPA, Gold Medalist from CSPA, and All-Florida from FSPA. In this episode, McNulty and podcast host Jim Jordan discuss her career, her classroom, and the pressure of finishing a yearbook while the world grapples with the coronavirus. You can learn more in the accompanying blog post on the Walsworth Yearbooks blog!

Susan Massy has been advising yearbooks for more than 30 years, and most of that has been at her current school. Yearbooks produced under her guidance have won many awards. In this interview with Jim Jordan, Massy discusses how much she struggled her first year, what made her come back to a second year, and the one big thing that made her yearbook experience better. In this interview, she recalled how she learned that yearbooks can be a true journalistic endeavor.   In the interview, she shares how inspiring her students can be, and how much she loves watching them be creative and problem-solve.  Her big advice for fellow yearbook advisers is: “We need to learn to coach, not just manage.” You can’t have an interview in 2020 without addressing what a crazy year it’s been. Massy and Jordan discuss the ways the impactful year has affected her yearbook. When they learned that spring sports were cancelled, they replaced it with COVID-19 coverage. Watching her students juggle all the changes helped Massy identify who would be her leaders for the 2021 school year. As the staff prepares for the 2021 book, they’re having what Massy calls both “freakout moments” and “aha moments.” Massy says their biggest challenge at the moment is putting together a yearbook ladder. They’ve increased their summer coverage, and are crowdsourcing for both photos and story ideas. They’re using several different mediums to collect these from the student body.   Massy shared her predictions for the 2021 yearbook. “I think our yearbook will have more first-person stories than we’ve ever had. I think we’ll have more people writing for us or with us than we ever have. So much of the content is going to have to come from beyond the staff.” They’ll be letting preconceived notions of what a yearbook “should be” fall away, and allowing this year’s book to take a new form that works with the current situation.   

2020 has been an odd year for everyone. We've all had to learn to navigate brand-new challenges. For Michelle Shue and her yearbook staff at Davie County High School in Mocksville, North Carolina. Like many schools around the country, they didn't have much warning when they learned they wouldn't be returning to the classroom. With their final deadline approaching, Shue and her staff buckled down and submitted half their book's pages in a two-week window!

Kathy Beers, from Timber Creek High School in Fort Worth, Texas, exudes creativity. She’s known for always having ideas, and her successful yearbook marketing tactics have been shared with schools all over the country. In this episode, host Jim Jordan talks to Kathy about her roundabout journey to yearbook and where she gets all her great ideas.

We're excited to introduce you to the March Adviser of Note! Johnathan Dixon is the yearbook adviser at Corsicana High School in Corsicana, Texas. His staff is known for their incredible photography skills, and it's not unusual for them to place in the Walsworth Yearbooks Photo Contest.  In this episode, host Jim Jordan talks photography, building a yearbook program from the ground up, and the journey that brought him to Corsicana High. 

Brad Cook, yearbook adviser at Gresham High School in Gresham, Oregon, is a bona fide graphic designer. He teaches graphic design, digital photography and yearbook.  Before becoming a teacher, he was a graphic designer at many places, including Nike – and he does his design work despite being colorblind! He’s passionate about typography – you can catch his session with Jim at the Nashville JEA Convention this March – and all things design. In this episode, Brad and host Jim Jordan take a deep dive on great design and creating an incredible yearbook.

In October 2019, Har-Ber High School in Springdale, Arkansas, and Meridian High School in Maycomb, Illinois, were selected as the winners of Walsworth Yearbooks’ Level Up contest. The prize package, worth over $3,500, includes a visit by Jim Jordan and Mike Taylor, CJE, to work with their staffs, editors and adviser. In early January, Jordan visited Karla Sprague, CJE, and her staff at Har-Ber High School and shared his experience.

In this episode, Jim honors three of Walsworth’s six advisers named a 2019 JEA Rising Star! Listen to his interview with Vanessa Martinez of El Dorado High School in El Paso, Texas; Samantha Lasarow of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Heights, California; and Bridgette Norris of Boone High School in Orland, Florida. Be sure to listen to the previous episode to hear Jim’s Rising Stars interviews with Leigh Rogers, Angie Wolfe and Dan Sidwell.

In this episode, host Jim Jordan honors three of Walsworth's six advisers named a 2019 JEA Rising Star! Listen to his interview with Leigh Rogers of Hermann High School, Missouri; Angie Wolfe of Burke High School in Omaha, Nebraska; and Dan Sidwell of Freedom High School in Tampa, Florida.  Check back next week as Jim completes his Rising Stars interviews with Vanessa Martinez, Samantha Lasarow and Bridgette Norris. 

Darren Thomas has been teaching for years, but never advised a yearbook until the 2019 school year. As a new teacher at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, he was looking for a way to feel more connected to his new school. He leaned on his editors that first year, and the staff created an award-winning book. In his second year, Thomas and his staff have the difficult task of covering a school year that includes a tragic event – a school shooting Nov. 14, 2019 left two students dead. He discusses that monumental task and yearbook life in general with host Jim Jordan. 

We already knew Becky Tate, CJE, is amazing. She's been at Shawnee Mission North High School in Mission, Kansas, for 31 years and many of her yearbook students have gone on to become journalism advisers themselves.  Now that her awesomeness is being recognized in a new way - she was just named JEA's 2019 H.L. Hall Yearbook Adviser of the Year - we're celebrating her by re-releasing Jim's interview with Becky from earlier this school year. Jim even reached out to Becky after the announcement and they recorded a bonus piece about her experience that day. 

Not able to make it to the NHSJC in Washington, D.C. this year? Did you attend but want even more? Want to revisit fond memories? Listen to this episode of Yearbook Chat with Jim, recorded live from the Fall 2019 convention in Washington, D.C. Jim interviewed JEA President Sarah Nichols, Convention Chair Meghan Percival, and the editorial staff of Pine Crest High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Julia Satterthwaite, MJE, just handled her first big deadline as a yearbook adviser. She’s advised other publications for several years, but host Jim Jordan is following her journey for the first year advising at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California. This is the first check-in episode. He’ll continue to follow Julia and her staff’s progress throughout the year.   Stay tuned to learn how they’re navigating the yearbook process together!

Pat Monroe has been an adviser at Burges High School in El Paso, Texas, for 29 years. During that time, her staffs have won many awards for their yearbook. This month’s adviser of note shared her background, including her previous career as a broadcast journalist, and what working with yearbook staffs means to her. You can learn more and see pictures of Pat and her students at walsworthyearbooks.com.

Julia Satterthwaite recently made some big changes in her life. She and her family recently moved from Michigan to California.  In her new job at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California, she added "yearbook adviser" to her list of roles for the first time. Follow along all year as host Jim Jordan checks back in with this experienced journalism educator as she navigates her first year of yearbook. 

In this special WYPN crossover episode, host Jim Jordan teams up with Mike Taylor, of the Ask Mike podcast, to talk about leveling up your yearbook! They bring in yearbook experts do discuss the possibilities and ways yearbook staffs can make improvements. They also speak to advisers and staffs about the ways they want to Level Up their yearbooks for 2020!   Get some help achieving your goals. Enter the Walsworth Yearbooks Level Up contest at walsworthyearbooks.com/level-up and you could win a visit from Jim and Mike!

Becky Tate, CJE, is in a position many journalism advisers would envy. She and the four other high school publications teachers in her district all get along. It probably helps that one of those four is her husband and two are former students.  Becky has advised some incredible, award-winning yearbooks during her three decades at Shawnee Mission North High School in Mission, Kansas. In this episode, Becky and host Jim Jordan discuss her success, her history and the community she helped to build.

When Neelam Borah fell seriously ill her freshman year of college, she soon learned she needed a new kidney. She received that kidney within a few weeks from someone she'd never met. Leah Waters is a high school journalism teacher in Texas, which is how she heard about Neelam's need.    Leah saved Neelam's life, and their shared love of writing continues to connect them. You can read some of Neelam's writing on her blog.    You can learn more about kidney donations from The National Kidney Foundation. 

Way back in season one of Yearbook Chat with Jim, host Jim Jordan interviewed six yearbook advisers who had just wrapped up their first year of advising. Five of these yearbook advisers are still at it. For the start of season 3, Jim checked back in with those five to see how they're doing and what they expect as they head into their third year of advising yearbook.  These advisers represent a broad range of schools. From California to North Carolina, from high schools with thousands of students to a high school with less than 100 students, these advisers bring a broad range of experience to the episode. Despite their different backgrounds, they all have one thing in common: they came back and kept advising yearbook. 

By the time he reached high school, Dow Tate was already a contributor to his local newspaper. That’s how much he was meant to work in journalism. Dow is now the publications adviser at Shawnee Mission East in Prairie Village, Kansas. Jim named him the May Adviser of Note, and it's difficult to imagine someone more deserving.  Dow's students speak highly of him, and his staffs have won many awards.  Listen in to hear Dow's story, from growing up poor outside Dallas, Texas, to selling magazines at the age of five, to meeting his wife through the yearbook circuit!

Host Jim Jordan has been checking in with Courtney Hanks and the yearbook staff of University High School in Orange City, Florida all year.  This final check-in, done in May, catches the graduating seniors right before they move on to the next stage and next year's staffers before they take over their new roles. 

In this episode, Jim Jordan talks with Vanessa Martinez of El Dorado High School in El Paso, Texas. She shares her journey from high school journalism, to college, to professional journalist, then finding her place as a scholastic journalism educator. She shares what it was like to follow in the footsteps of a well-liked, award-winning adviser, how her competitive streak drives her to help her students succeed and the significance the Spanish language plays in their school and yearbook. Contact Jim at podcasts@walsworth.com.

Recorded live at the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Spring Convention, host Jim Jordan sat down with yearbook adviser Sarah Lerner and students who survived the February 14, 2018 tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  In the weeks following the shooting that left 17 dead, Lerner was approached about putting together a book of work about their school's experiences that day and after.  The result is "Parkland Speaks: Survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas Share their Stories." In this episode, Lerner and students who contributed to the book share their stories about using writing and art to process the experience. 

Courtney Hanks is making her mark on the yearbook world. She and the staff of the award-winning Odyssey yearbook at University High School in Orange City, Florida, have been working hard to create an incredible 2019 yearbook. Listen in as host Jim Jordan checks in with Courtney and her staff, EIC Emily Edwards, EIC Jonathan Jackson, Managing Editor Brooke Williams, Managing Editor Jordan McKendrick and staffer Julie Annunziato.   In the first check in following winter break, Courtney and the staff reveal their theme, share the struggles they've faced so far, and discuss what they've learned on the journey.