For Katie Rice, the seed of creating and publishing was planted during fifth grade at West Elementary School in Mount Vernon, Indiana, when she was on the West Warrior Newsletter team.
“I remember gathering information from teachers and fellow students of the goings on of our school community, then designing on a PageMaker-type program that provided plenty of clip art,” says Rice, now a representative for Walsworth Yearbooks.
At Mount Vernon Junior High, she was the news anchor for her school’s weekly broadcast. As a student at Mount Vernon High School, she earned a spot on the newspaper and later yearbook staff as the lead design editor.
“I thoroughly loved the process of creating something that was not only entertaining but an important piece of school history that was held in the hands of my fellow classmates,” she says.
At the University of Southern Indiana, Rice studied advertising and public relations and found an unexpected mentor. Kristen Tucker came to speak to one of her classes, around the time Tucker had just started Evansville Living magazine, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in March 2025.
“Her words stuck with me, as she drove home the importance of storytelling and taking risks in making dreams into reality,” Rice says.
After graduating and pursuing another degree – this time in graphic design – Rice found a job at her local Thrifty Nickel as a sales representative for the weekly publication.
Then, something serendipitous happened.
In 2016, Jo Hamm, her yearbook adviser from high school, was working as a sales representative for Walsworth Yearbooks and asked Rice if she would be interested in taking over Hamm’s territory.
After rounds of informal interviews, Rice flew to Kansas City, Kansas, for a full day of talks at the Walsworth sales and marketing offices. Shortly after she returned from Kansas City, she received a job offer.
Rice knows firsthand what it’s like running a student yearbook team and enjoys guiding the students she works with as a representative for Walsworth.
“When I meet with student editors, I do see myself in them as they figure out how to enliven and motivate their staff members to do their job,” she says, “so they can tell their story of the year as creatively and accurately as possible.”
