1970

As we lurch toward our 30 th Reunion, with Josh FitzHugh agonizing publicly over the topic for the reunion seminar, I pass along this update from Ron Perell, which suggests that a good topic might be "what I want to do when I grow up." Ron writes: "My son Daniel was recendy admitted into the Dartmouth class of'04. He represents a third-generation Perell at Dartmouth. My dad, Arthur, was '47.1 was (of course) a '70. My brothers also attended the College. Bill was a '74 and Howard a '76. My son's good upbringing is primarily a reflection on my wife, Ellen. Daniel is our only child. Ellen, however, has two by a previous marriage. Her son Jeremy 28, is a Fulbright Scholar now assisting the Thai government. Her daughter Dayna, 26, will marry next June. I received my juris doctor from the then-Dickinson School of Law (now Penn State) in 1976 and an LL.M. from N.Y.U. in 1977. Somehow I could never master the concept of billing the client for an unsuccessful result in the legal field, so I never practiced law. I went directly into business and have been a sod farmer, a canoe maker, a pawnbroker and a jewelry store owner. I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up."

Quite a varied career path, Ron, but there's still time for a few more.

And now for an update from the front. I just received the following release regarding the intrepid John Chittick titled "AIDS Educator Back in U.S. After Five-Month Trek Through Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia." It reads: "John Chittick, Ed.D., is back in the United States after speaking to thousands of Southeast Asian youths and walking more than 1,800 miles to spread information about Teen HIV/AIDS. Using his TeenAIDS PeerCorps model of educating, which he developed at Harvard, and technology from MIT, Chittick walked through urban and rural areas in small towns and villages training teens on how to educate their peers. Dr. Chittick created a program in which he trains peer teachers effectively and economically. In the past six months Dr. Chittick has trained some 25,000 AIDS prevention peer teachers on five continents. 'I go directly to teens wherever they are and tell them the medical facts of how AIDS is transmitted. I urge them to spread the news to their friends before it is too late,' says Dr. Chittick. 'In this way, local efforts grow globally at a fraction of the cost of traditional prevention campaigns.'

"In the beginning, in Vietnam, there was resistance as it was the first 'walk' of its kind. The Vietnamese press gave much attention. Some of the areas were also remote and dangerous as he did street outreach through Cambodia, Bosnia and Indonesia. 'Hightech networking and low-maintenance walking shoes," is how Dr. Chittick describes the global experiment in telecommunications. Dr. Chittick walked with a laptop computer, a modem and a cell phone. It was the first time a nonprofit organization was involved in training teens in global regions but run from the field by access of the MIT association. The TeenAIDS Web site, the first AIDS Web site, is www.teenaids.org." And how did you all spend your winter vacation?

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June 15-18