2 minute read

2020: A Class Dismissed – Jenna Fecteau

May 31, 2020

Jenna Fecteau a senior at Bonny Eagle High School in Standish, discusses how the coronavirus has impacted her last months of high school ⁠— and could change her college plans.

A photo of an empty classroom with overlayed text reading 2020: A class dismissed.

Born in the weeks and months after 9/11, and graduated in the year of a crippling pandemic, the Class of 2020 lived through some of the most profound change ever witnessed. These young adults missed out on cornerstone experiences that ease the transition from being a child to being an adult. We captured the stories of a class prematurely dismissed.

This video is part of the 2020: A Class Dismissed series. The Maine Monitor is speaking to seniors from as many Maine high schools as possible to tell the story of Maine’s Class of 2020 and how these soon-to-be graduates are dealing with the unexpected developments that come with a pandemic and a disrupted senior year. This video of Jenna Fecteau was recorded on May 17.

Jenna was interviewed on May 17, 2020. On that day, these were the top news stories in Maine:

Maine reopening despite missed benchmarks, inadequate testing regime (By Colin Woodard of the Portland Press Herald)
Maine cities and towns push absentee voting for July election reshaped by virus (By Jessica Piper of the Bangor Daily News)
39 new coronavirus cases detected in Maine with no additional deaths (By Rosemary Lausier of the Bangor Daily News)
UMaine students completed their online classes. But they didn’t always learn as much. (By Eesha Pendharkar of the Bangor Daily News)
Auburn senior home reports coronavirus outbreak as 3 staff, 1 resident test positive (By Charles Eichacker of the Bangor Daily News)
Employee of Bar Harbor retirement community tests positive for coronavirus (By Charles Eichacker of the Bangor Daily News)
Seized Maine animals caught in legal pandemic limbo (By Christopher Williams of the Sun Journal)
Psychological fallout from pandemic could be prolonged, say Maine mental health experts (By Lauren Abbate of the Bangor Daily News)
COVID-19 forces end-of-life conversations for nursing home residents (By Eric Russell of the Portland Press Herald)
UMaine creates N95 mask testing solutions (By Roslyn Flaherty of News Center Maine)
Aroostook meat producers see jump in business (By Alexander MacDougall and David Marino Jr. of the The Star-Herald)
Maine bartenders reimagine their profession for a post-pandemic world (By Nick Schroeder of the Bangor Daily News)
As gyms prepare to open, questions linger about safety in a high-exertion environment (By Glenn Jordan of the Press Herald)
$604K raised for local business fund (By Dick Broom of the Mount Desert Islander)
Wizard of Oz draws a sold-out crowd to Pride’s Corner drive-in movie theater (By WMTW)

To view more of the day’s headlines, browse our collection of the state’s best coronavirus coverage.

Check out our interactive data dashboard to explore trends in Maine’s COVID-19 cases by county, age, sex of the afflicted individuals and more in charts updated daily with data from Maine’s CDC.

Bailey Beltramo

Bailey Beltramo is an emerging photographer who grew up in Canterbury, New Hampshire. He graduated with a degree in communications from Norwich University in 2017, and continued his education through the Professional Intensive program at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. Both his photo and film work are pursued through a documentary approach and focus on capturing human experience in outdoor environments. His published work has spanned a range of settings from life on a dude ranch in Wyoming to the lessons of a non-profit, nature-based school in New Hampshire.