Imagine showing up to a job interview, and one of the other candidates for the job is wearing the exact same thing as you. Now imagine that person is one of your best friends. Templar Yearbook Co-Editors-in-Chief Riley Rubiano and Leilani Henson don’t have to imagine, because that happened to them when they interviewed for their current position in the spring of 2019.

“We met at the elevators and she was like ‘how are we matching?’ We both somehow managed to wear a black and white t-shirt dress with denim jackets and sandals and I was like ‘one of us needs to change right now,’” Henson said. With no time to change, Henson and Rubiano each walked into their interview for the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Templar Yearbook, and “nailed it” according to Managing Director of Student Media and Templar Advisor John DiCarlo.

Prior to Rubiano and Henson, Templar had never had co-editors-in-chief in DiCarlo’s 20 years as the advisor to the publication. Every candidate for the position interviews with a publications board consisting of three faculty members, three administrators and three students; and usually one is selected to be the editor-in-chief. After interviewing Rubiano and Henson, the board couldn’t decide between the two outstanding candidates, and made them co-editors-in-chief.

After having been co-editor-in-chief of her high school yearbook, Rubiano began her time at Templar as a senior reporter writing feature stories about people and organizations on campus. She is happy that she got to continue working for a yearbook in college, and said that Temple having a yearbook was one of the deciding factors in her decision to attend college here. 

Henson was not involved in yearbook in high school, but her freshman year residence assistant encouraged her to get involved with Templar. She became the Owl Pride accountant, meaning she handled ads and parent messages that would be included in that year’s final product. After struggling with imposter syndrome and worrying about getting involved in campus organizations, “I found my thing,” Henson said.

Even though they lived on the same floor in Hardwick Hall their freshman year, Templar is where Rubiano and Henson established their friendship.  

“I joined the yearbook shortly after she did and we kind of just stuck together,” Henson said. Now, Rubiano and Henson are finishing their second year as co-editors-in-chief, as well as their first year being roommates!

Rubiano, an advertising major with a concentration in branch strategy and research; and Henson, a journalism major, support each other with their different strengths as they lead the yearbook staff. “I think it’s nice to have a variety of majors because we have different majors and then also our staff is a variety of majors too, like not everybody on our staff is from Klein and I think that really adds to the diversity of the staff and diversity of experiences that they bring to the team,” Rubiano said.

DiCarlo agrees, and emphasized both students’ reliability and dedication to their work. “We would not have a great yearbook without them, period,” DiCarlo said. “They’re two of the finest editors and student journalists that we have on campus.”

Rubiano and Henson were resilient throughout their work during the pandemic. Henson said that it “definitely wasn’t as bad as I was expecting,” and that the shift from working in-person to virtually went smoothly. 

“This year was definitely challenging, but I think our staff did a good job of incorporating things that were happening on campus,” Rubiano said.

Both Rubiano and Henson will be graduating in December of 2021, but will remain co-editors-in-chief until then. After graduation, Rubiano is not exactly sure what she wants to do, but is optimistic for her future. Henson hopes to work for a local magazine because of their focus on people and small businesses, and will be interning at Susquehanna Style this summer. 

“Both of them are going to succeed in whatever they do,” DiCarlo said.

Rubiano is excited for the yearbooks she has worked on to become a part of the collection of Templar yearbooks dating back to the ‘30s, and says, “it’s so cool to open up a yearbook and see what was happening in a specific year.”

“The yearbook is really cool!” Henson said. “It’s really fun, and you might make a lifelong friend.”

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