Susan Massy: Yearbook’s Queen of Storytelling

Yearbook Chat with Jim

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.