In Wednesday’s editorial, we introduced a project we are undertaking to publish a short, 150-word story on every local member of the high school and college Class of 2020.

Local high schools are sending their seniors a letter from us, explaining how it all works, and Paul Smith’s College and North Country Community College are doing the same. But we also want to reach local graduates of other colleges.

Therefore, we are printing in this space the letter we are sending college students. If you are are one, please participate. If you know one, please pass this along.

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Dear Class of 2020:

We at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise realize that you are going through challenges and changes that no one alive today has experienced before. We want to honor you in the only way we can, by telling people about you in the pages of the newspaper.

We would like to publish a short, 150-word story on each of you. It’s a chance to be heard, and known, by the greater community of the Tri-Lakes area.

We plan to include as many of these mini-articles and photos as possible in the pages of the Daily Enterprise, a few at a time, but we also want to print them all together in a special section on local college graduates, which would appear sometime in May.

Each article should answer three basic questions, with each answer typically consisting of a paragraph:

1. Past: Who were you in college?

2. Present: What is it like being a graduate during this time of pandemic and quarantine?

3. Future: What do you plan to do after graduation?

You may submit concise answers to the three questions, and we will write your piece for you. You may also write your own article, in either first or third person. Please note that editing may be necessary. Again, each completed article should be around 150 words. Below is a fictional sample article you can use as a guideline.

We also ask that you send us a relatively high-resolution photo of yourself that we can publish with your article.

Please email all submissions to 2020adkgrads@gmail.com. Please include your name, school, degree and major. We look forward to receiving your articles as soon as possible and may follow up if we don’t hear from you by May 5.

Kind regards,

Peter Crowley

Managing editor

Adirondack Daily Enterprise

518-891-2600 ext. 22

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SAMPLE ARTICLE (fictional):

Shannon Smith

(name of college)

(degree type), Business

Shannon didn’t realize how hard college-level business classes would be. “But I met some great professors,” she said, “and they not only helped me understand what I needed to know about commerce — they also taught me a lot about how to be a responsible adult.”

She also made some lifelong friends and, yes, managed to squeeze in a little bit of fun amid the studying.

The coronavirus lockdown separated her from the classmates who had helped each other through every difficulty until then.

“Distance learning was nothing like the campus environment that I loved,” she said. “I can’t help but feel a little cheated. But my classmates and professors have been awesome in keeping up the support network. It’s good to know they’re with me through this.”

She hopes to land a job managing an outdoors-related businesses, and her dream is to someday open an outdoor gear shop in her hometown of Tupper Lake.

(154 words)