Behind Northwestern State University’s yearbook are students from different majors, career aspirations and levels of experience all working toward one goal: creating an amazing yearbook. The Potpourri staff works together to conceptualize and deliver this book filled with memories and moments that capture NSU’s student life for the year.
Each yearbook carries a theme. This year, the staff decided to link the theme of the book to the Homecoming theme, Y2K or the 2000s.
Haley Wiggins, the editor-in-chief of The Potpourri, explained that after finding out the Homecoming theme for the year during a meeting, everyone on staff liked the idea to match the theme to the yearbook. “Our ideas just started coming to life after the homecoming festivities,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins and her associate editor, Sharye Belcher, felt that the title of the book, “The Comeback” portrayed the new changes happening on campus. Belcher said, “The idea that our football team is making a comeback this year, our new president James Genovese is coming back to NSU and NSU as a whole is making a comeback with a new building, Alost Hall, made the title perfect. Also, as 2025 celebrates 25 years since the 2000s, there’s no better time to have a 2000s themed book celebrating old trends and styles making a comeback.”
This book features new design elements and more student engagement. Belcher said there are timelines for events like Homecoming Week that go in-depth on the events and day-to-day festivities, and more spreads featuring students and faculty like a fashion spread and a Professor Appreciation page.
These new details contribute to the well-rounded approach the staff took to properly freeze the events and student life from the year in time.
Ella Dupuie is this year’s copy editor, and her experience being a part of The Potpourri has allowed her to serve NSU students.
“My favorite part of being involved in The Potpourri is the feeling of creating something permanent that others will be able to find joy in for years to come,” Dupuie said. “I get to write stories that will always exist, that people can read long after I’ve left NSU and love.”
Across these pages are polished final versions of stories, designs and small details made possible for readers to enjoy by other NSU students. Long meetings, hours of taking pictures, countless events and dozens of scheduled interviews arranged and organized through perseverance were necessary to create the book you’re reading.
“We spent tireless months writing articles at breakneck speeds and several meetings brainstorming about fun new additions to make this year’s book really unique,” Dupuie added.
The staff hopes that students feel seen with each page and that it allows its readers to reminisce through time when they pick up this book. “The Comeback” is the legacy Wiggins, Belcher and Dupuie hope imprints their time and your time at NSU.
“I really think that this book is one for the books,” Wiggins said. “This yearbook is better than ever and it’s got great content, great everything and I just hope you see the effort that we put into this for you.”
