2002

Recovering from a fabulous trip to Jazz Fest in New Orleans and plunging into the final stretch of the middle school year, I am pleased as punch to know that you'll be reading this in the end of June when summer has begun. Somehow writing a column that will be read in June makes the end of the school year seem much more within reach. It was a fairly light couple of news months for the '02s, but here are the updates I've heard recently.

Awhile back I heard from Jeff Dwyer, who says that he wrote a book, Pro Web 2.0 Application Development with GWT, a fantastic gift for all ages that should be out by National Chocolate Chip Day (May 15). He insists that, "at its heart, it's a psychedelic children's adventure about a boy named Blue and a large yellow turtle," though it may seem like a computer programming book for the first couple read-throughs. Stick with it!

Asa Tapley will live and work in La Paz, Bolivia, for about nine months beginning this fall on a Fulbright full grant. He will conduct public health-related research, studying education programs that train new Bolivian doctors to better engage with and deliver services to rural, poor indigenous communities. He will apply to medical schools before leaving and hopes to attend medical school when he returns from Bolivia in fall 2009. He says that you should tell him if you'll be near La Paz next year or would like to visit, as he'd love to have visitors.

We have many medical school graduates in our midst, including Karin Ljungquist and Katie Simon. Karin will move to Columbus, Ohio, to begin a residency in orthopedic surgery at Ohio State University after graduating from Albany Medical College. Katie is graduating from Boston University and will move to Seattle, Washington, to start her pediatrics residency at the University of Washington. Both would love to hear from alumni in their new regions, and I'd love to hear the latest from all the rest of you finishing graduate programs this spring.

Heading into the summer, I rest easy knowing another bunch of you must be tying the knot and doing other noteworthy things in the coming months. Let me know all the juicy details.

229 East 21st St., Apt 16, New York, NY 10010; jt.leaird@gmail.com