2 minute read

2020: A Class Dismissed – Reina and Ronna Ruzigana

May 11, 2020

Reina and Ronna Ruzigana, seniors at South Portland High School who moved to Maine from Rwanda four years ago, discuss how the coronavirus has impacted their last months of high school.

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 Reina and Ronna Ruzigana was recorded on April 22.

Reina and Ronna were interviewed on April 22, 2020. On that day, these were the top news stories in Maine:

Three more coronavirus deaths reported in Maine, bringing total to 39 (By Eric Russell of the Portland Press Herald)
Coronavirus hospitalizations in Maine are declining. It doesn’t mean the outbreak is over. (By Jessica Piper of the Bangor Daily News)
New relief bill would bring funds to Maine for testing, help with unemployment (By Mal Leary of Maine Public)
State probes possible coronavirus outbreak at John F. Murphy Homes in Auburn (By Christopher Williams of the Sun Journal)
As nursing homes grapple with the coronavirus, how much they tell families has varied (By Eesha Pendarkar of the Bangor Daily News)
Protective gear wasn’t allocated to states based on population, despite claims (By Colin Woodard of the Portland Press Herald)
Maine tourism workers may be scarce this season as pandemic keeps foreign laborers away (By Bill Trotter of the Bangor Daily News)
St. Mary’s Health System in Lewiston to furlough 77 staff members (By Lindsay Tice of the Sun Journal)
Two Bridges Regional Jail inmate count down 30-40% (By Darcie Moore of the Times Record)
Lewiston to receive additional grant funds for pandemic relief (By Andrew Rice of the Sun Journal)
How the coronavirus has changed campaigning for these Maine candidates (By Jessica Piper of the Bangor Daily News)
Westbrook police charging repeat violators of stay-at-home order (By Chance Viles of the American Journal)
How a Belfast woman born during the 1918 flu pandemic celebrated her 102nd birthday (By Abigail Curtis of the Bangor Daily News)

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.