Headline: College Towns Can Be Attractive Later in Life
I literally googled “alumni retire in college town” and after reading a few, this lead caught my attention the most. As I scrolled through the article and to the bottom, I noticed a familiar town mentioned.
The kind of lead used here is a narrative lead, focusing in on William Riffer, a man who ended up retiring off the campus of William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia. This sets up the story to talk about other people who have retired in college towns, whether they go their for the education aspect, the alumni connections or the stable economy.
The writer pulled me into the story by making me like the first person he talks about, William Riffer. And he makes me want to keep reading by introducing more likable characters, such as Sherry Burford and Bill O’Connell.
The nutgraph comes in the fourth paragraph when the writer explains the appeal for older people to live in college towns during retirement.
This story quoted five people throughout the story, but also highlighted the lives of several other and their return to a college town without quoting them. Most of them were the retired people, but the story also quoted an executive director of a university. This allowed to tell some of the downsides of older generations living in a college town.
Besides hyperlinks throughout the story and one picture of William Riffer, there wasn’t much multimedia included. I would’ve loved to see closer up pictures of the people mentioned and maybe even an interactive map highlighting where all these people ended up retiring.
As for my story, I think this does a great job of making readers connect with the people interviewed. I will zero in more on just Ole Miss and the alumni who have retired here and why they chose to come back. This article mentioned the Oxford Newcomers Club and Friends, which is great because I probably would’ve never known about that otherwise and can now easily reach out to them as a source for my own story.
Maggie Crouch 
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