Everyone wants to be remembered, even throughout the early-in-life high school chapters. It is noteworthy to have an acknowledgement of one’s existence that will remain in the minds of others after someone has left the high school scene. However, it is a rarity when a person truly earns this honor, no matter how universal the desire.

Senior Quincy Staley is someone who has achieved this accomplishment. Although she will soon transition into further stages of laughs, losses and valuable experiences as she concludes her high school career, her achievements at North Atlanta deserve to be celebrated. Currently, Staley is the editor in chief of Invictus, North Atlanta’s yearbook, and will graduate in May to attend Georgia Tech in the fall. She has held the yearbook leadership position since her junior year.

Most students are not promoted to editor until a final year at school due to the possibility that they will not adequately juggle the responsibility of academics with demanding yearbook commitments. And yet, when faced with this challenge, Staley rose to the occasion. She came into yearbook class by a happy coincidence. “It was by chance that I landed on the yearbook,” she said. “Freshman year I needed to get out of a class I was in and there was a slot in the yearbook class.”

In her first year, Staley worked under Andre Regan, the yearbook class adviser and Corinne Klibanoff, the editor in chief. “Coming in, I was the errand girl. The next year, everyone graduated, and only two of us were left. By default, we became the editors,” she said.

By her second year, Staley knew she knew for certain she enjoyed yearbook and the many arrayed aspects of it. She thrived with the combination of photography, writing, along with talking with and interviewing students. “My favorite part of the process was the sense of being a leader,” she said. “It was exhilarating and let me believe in myself more.”

Where in her first year Staley was relatively daunted being the youngest in the room, by the time she was a junior she felt ready to lead the book toward completion. She said being an editor-in-chief has helped her expand her horizons and grow as a person. “No matter what I wind up doing, I’m probably always going to say I learned a lot about management and life in yearbook class,” she said.

One of her most defining, self-taught lessons as editor is to treat her staff as individuals on a team rather than simply one monotonous, single entity. Staley has also learned leading is no easy task, but rather it’s an endeavor that requires constant effort. At Tech, Staley wants to major in business and work in the corporate world in her career.

For future yearbook workers, she has plenty of solid advice to offer. Leaders should stay calm. Flexibility is crucial. If something goes awry, the sky will not come shattering down. In tandem with this note, remember the name of the yearbook, Invictus, and its empowering meaning of “unconquerable.”

As a yearbook, Invictus is a collection of memories, a vibrant capturing of life that will soon be a distant thought. And even though the book’s current editor will soon leave the North Atlanta scene, proof of her stellar work will live on each time a student picks up his or her yearbook. “It’s crazy to think that my work can have an impact 25 to 30 years down the road,” she said.