At the start of the new school year, students lined the corridor in Nazareth Hall pouring over The Scroll from the 2008-2009 year. Students flipped though the pages of memories and nostalgia.

But come next August, students will be holding something much smaller.

The Scroll has gone digital.

Next year, instead of receiving a book, all full-time students will receive a DVD. 

The Scroll disc will make printed yearbooks a thing of the past but will include many new features made possible by cutting-edge yearbook tools.

According to yearbook advisor Rick Busch, the Scroll will be done with the latest version of Adobe Acrobat. This new program gives the user the ability to imbed video and animation files to static yearbook pages in a PDF format. 

With Adobe Acrobat students will see full-colored, animated characters, hear music, and watch the funniest moments of the year at any time right on the pages of their yearbook. Busch and The Scroll staff are thrilled with all of the media possibilities that this program offers without the limitations of page number or cost. 

“I am looking forward to being able to incorporate video, audio, animation and student submissions as well as photo slide shows into our digital media yearbook this year,” said Keri Grandy, editor-in-chief of The Scroll. “This will help us to represent the college body better than before.”  

Composers, start practicing. Writers, start drafting. Artists, start drawing because next year, all of those pieces can be in the yearbook.

“We want to be really inclusive—poems and stories—let’s get them in the yearbook,” Busch said. 

This year, The Scroll can be taken to a new level by showing the hobbies and passions of the students and community.

“We want the media to include what is happening on campus this year,” Busch said. 

Busch spent 60 hours researching and learning about the program and gave a seven-minute presentation to members of the administration to convince them why the yearbook should go digital.    

He focused on the new features and gave examples of what The Scroll could do in upcoming years.

Because the program can include a larger number of students’ works, as well as save the college about $10,000, The Scroll was given permission to go digital.

To those who are still skeptical of the change, The Scroll is still going to have the same goals as in previous years.  In fact, their mission statement has not changed.

“The Scroll team exists to create a God-honoring keepsake for the Northwestern College community that captures the people, events, and excitement of the school year,” Busch said.

Busch shared some of The Scroll staff’s new strategies for the coming year. There will be a lot more video, and the section on Homecoming will include not only photos, but video footage of the game. The Scroll staff can put together a composition of highlights that include the best parts of the game.

“Some of Northwestern’s best moments can be captured on video and re-played as many times as you’d like,” said Yearbook Editor, Junior, Annalisa Koehler.

“I think people will be able to identify well with it because with video and voice, it will make the viewer feel more a part of what is going on.” 

The biggest drawback that Busch and the Scroll staff could think of was the lack of the physical book for students to hold and page through. However, Busch is staying positive about the change.

“They can hold the DVD binder,” he said with a smile. 

Another drawback is that the yearbook can only be viewed on a computer with Adobe Acrobat. However, this program can be legally downloaded online for free. 

There are multiple benefits that the new yearbook software offers, according to Busch. Students majoring in communication, marketing, animation and other majors can showcase their work in a new way and  can add animated graphics and video to their resumes.

“We want to bless students and the campus with what we’re learning,” Busch said. 

Another benefit is that the community will have access to the yearbook. The staff’s goal is to put the Scroll online next year so that Northwestern Alumni will be able to view it as well. 

Busch believes a strong community is required for an idea like this to flourish.

“This won’t fly on all campuses,” Busch said. But at Northwestern, “This won’t die on the vine. There’s too much excitement.”  

There are still a few positions open on The Scroll staff. Interested persons are encouraged to contact Keri Grandy at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The team hopes to keep expanding the project in future years.