Who are Yerds Graham Beck and Ian Beck?
YERD ALERT!
Graham and Ian
The same, but different.
Their looks are similar, but they are definitely different. Graham Beck might be the more creative and more outgoing twin. His brother Ian is the more organized, more punctual and more logical. And they had always gone to school together.
Until this year. As college freshmen, Graham is at Boston College vacillating between a degree in communication (he loves photography) and one in science that just might lead to med school, and Ian is more than 2,500 miles south and west at the University of Southern California, where he’s considering a history major.
In 2011, the duo graduated from Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, CA, where Graham co-edited the Carillon after four years on staff and Ian served as Photo Editor senior year. It was yet another case were their actions followed a similar, but different, path.
As a freshman, Graham — the elder by 15 minutes — was intrigued by the opportunity immediately. “It was literally the first day of school,” he remembers. “I was sitting at the Mass of the Holy Spirit and I saw the photographers shooting all kinds of images. It was clear they had full access and they were serious about capturing the action and emotions of the day. I sat right there thinking I wanted to try that.”
Before he knew it, Graham was on board. He remembers his first-ever assignment well: he shot a frosh/soph water polo scrimmage. Before the game, he’d done lots of research on both water polo and photography and it showed in the images he turned in afterwards. The photo editors recognized his interest, his talent and his desire to improve. By sophomore year, Graham had won photo of the week and had moved on to some non-sports assignments. And he’d convinced Ian that he needed to be on staff as well.
They valued their time on staff for different reasons. Ian appreciates the historical aspects of the project, while Graham, as a co-EIC and three-time Yerd in Portland, New York and Anaheim, saw the bigger picture.
"My high school experience was so much more intense — and personal and varied — because of yearbook. I now have this amazing perspective of the year because we were intentional in our curation of its history.”
"My high school experience was so much more intense — and personal and varied — because of yearbook. I now have this amazing perspective of the year because we were intentional in our curation of its history.”
While Graham has continued with photography (he’s currently Assistant Photo Editor for the campus newspaper at BC); Ian has joined the USC marching band, playing the alto sax. Despite their different roles, their personal interests and the natural inclinations that distinguish the pair, they agree that being on yearbook was an amazing experience.
It’s not unusual for adviser Dmitri Conom to have brothers who serve on the Carillon staff together, but Ian and Graham were his first set of twins. “It was great to have them working on the book together. Their personalities are completely complementary, so they contributed to the process in very different ways — and the book was better because of that.”
Yearbook Discoveries Volume 16 Issue3