Jamie Clements and Family's Excellent "Open Road Scholars" Adventure

Jamie Clements and wife Diana took their two daughters, Noe and Carolina, last fall on a cross-country adventure in home schooling and exploration, captured on their family blog www.openroadscholars.com. In an email, Jamie described the logistics and the plan thusly:

Here are the vital statistics on the "big adventure"...

1 Winnebago

3 dogs

4 people

16 weeks

49 states

17,000 miles

. . . which, of course, does not begin to convey the extraordinary experience we all shared.

We left Santa Fe on August 18, 2008, and returned home December 3. Our website ends in Atlanta because, by then, we were utterly exhausted and used all of our remaining energy and resources to finish the trip.

We came closer together as a family (which is a little hard not to do in a 27-foot RV with, maybe, 150 square feet of living space) and connected with our twin daughters in a way that will not be possible again as they move into high school in September.

We saw every part of the US, which was amazing, and watched two historic events unfold as we traveled: the presidential election and the crash of our economic system. Now that's something to remember!

Ieva Miesnieks Rogers and the Philip Alan Rogers '79 Memorial Rugby Fund

Classmate Ieva Miesnieks Rogers is busy these days as a mom and presiding over the Philip Alan Rogers '79 Memorial Rugby Fund, established and named in honor of her late husband, Phil Rogers '79. He played varsity soccer and Rugby at Princeton and was a key player on the Rugby Club's Ivy League Championship team in 1979. Phil majored in civil engineering and upon graduation earned the NJ Society of Civil Engineers Award.

Ieva, together with Phil's brothers, Marty '78 and Pete, and some dear friends, including our classmate Andrea Baumann Lustig, established the Fund in 2006 after Phil's untimely death a few months earlier. Ieva credits Andrea with inspiring her to create this Memorial. The Fund awards the Prize each year to an underclass rugby player to recognize "his or her unique leadership and sportsmanship qualities, both on and off the rugby pitch, that our friend and teammate Phil personified." The Prize is permanently represented by a stunning two-foot bronze sculpture that shows two hands poised to catch a rugby ball.

Phil and Ieva's two sons are extremely proud of their dad, most especially for his "off the field" accomplishments, being the most loving and nurturing (and nature-loving) dad ever. Oliver, a freshman at Wake Forest, will never forget all the "strenuous for some" bike expeditions with his father, and Colton, who is about to finish the second grade, claims he knows more of Patriot's Path in Morris County than any other 7-year old, thanks to his dad, who took him on Saturday morning hikes for as long as he can remember . . . what a fond memory.

For more information about the Foundation, please visit its website at www.parmrfund.org.

Cecilia Peck Mentioned in a Spanish Newspaper

Steve Hughes sends in this note from Spain:

Back on Dec. 28, 2008, El Mundo published an article on a documentary that is being made about the story of an Israeli woman who was raped just seven weeks before she was proclaimed Miss World. And lo and behold, it turned out that the director is Cecilia Peck '80! Granted, Cecilia plays a supporting role in the article, as you might expect, but she and her latest film project are already making waves over her in Spain! Here's the link: http://www.elmundo.es/suplementos/cronica/2008/689/1230418814.html

Anne-Marie Slaughter to Lead Policy Planning Staff at State Department

Anne-Marie Slaughter has resigned as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs to become director of the policy planning staff at the U.S. State Department. Anne-Marie, who also is the Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton, will remain a faculty member and take a public service leave from the University.

The policy planning staff provides policy analysis and advice for the secretary of state, and its mission is “to take a longer term, strategic view of global trends and frame recommendations for the secretary of state to advance U.S. interests and American values,” according to the State Department’s website.

Anne-Marie , who will report directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will be the first woman director of the policy planning staff in the department’s history. Renowned diplomat and scholar George Kennan, a 1925 Princeton alumnus, created the office in 1947 and was its first director.

The complete Princeton press release can be found here. The State Department page for the Policy Planning staff is here.

John Rogers Goes One-on-One with Michael Jordan

Sports Illustrated last month had an article about John Rogers' one-on-one basketball adventure against Michael Jordan. The article, found here, starts like this:

What would it be worth to you to be able to utter the greatest barroom boast ever? What if the next time the fellas are sitting around playing Can You Top This?, you could blow away their tales of high school homers and once-sorta-dated-a-sorta-model with this bad boy: "I beat Michael Jordan one-on-one."

I first heard rumor of the feat from a friend in Chicago. The details were hazy: It (probably) occurred at MJ’s basketball camp (about) five years ago, when he lost to a camper for the first time -- an old(-ish) guy who threw up a (musta-been) crazy lefty hook to which Jordan (undoubtedly) yelled, Nooooo!

What’s more, my friend said, the whole thing was (purportedly) videotaped.

A call led to a call led to a name, John Rogers Jr. Now 49, Rogers is a Chicago rainmaker: Princeton grad; founder and CEO of Ariel Mutual Finds, the nation’s largest minority-run mutual fund; friendly with Oprah; even friendlier with Barack Obama (who has used Rogers’s conference room for mock debates). Most important, he could afford Jordan’s Senior Flight School, a three-day summer camp in Las Vegas for the 35-and-over-and-affluent crowd that ran 15 grand, or more than twice what it would cost to go to, you know, actual flight school.

Robert Klitzman Quotes in NY Times Ethics Column

Bob Klitzman is quoted in today's New York Times Ethics column. Here is the question and answer involving Bob:

My aging father needs a kidney transplant. A brother and I are willing donors, but I am a perfect blood match while he is only an acceptable match. The hospital says either will do for the next round of testing, but it prefers the perfect blood match. We could flip a coin, a fair way to choose between us, but our dad could get the second-best kidney. Whose needs take precedence? — NAME WITHHELD

Here is a better way to phrase the question: How should we make this decision? The answer is, not by a coin toss but by a more sophisticated method — rock-paper-scissors. Sorry. No. You and your brother, having already settled the ethical crux by agreeing to be donors, should now let the hospital answer the medical question: How to promote the best outcome for a transplant? Hence you, as the better blood match, should undergo this round of tests.

Those tests are only the next step. Before making a final decision, you need more information. Dr. Robert Klitzman, a bioethicist at Columbia University Medical Center, suggests a few things to discuss with the transplant team: “Why does [the] father need a kidney transplant? What is his diagnosis? Does he have a genetically related kidney disease? Do the brothers have wives and children with other serious medical problems?” As Klitzman rightly implies, there can be medical (and nonmedical) implications not just for you, your brother and your father but also for other people you love.

UPDATE: The letter writer was tested — the insurance company will pay for only one person at a time to go through the process — and ruled out as a donor. A third brother, also an ideal blood match, is considering being the next in the family to be tested.

John Rogers Featured in PAW Article About Barack Obama's Campaign

The latest issue of PAW features an article, "Portraits of Purpose," about black leadership in Chicago and its role in Barack Obama's presidential campaign. John Rogers, founder of Ariel Capital Management, figures prominently in the story. It starts,

In 1991, an understated young law school graduate asked John Rogers ’80 for help. He said his name was Barack Obama and he wanted to register African-Americans to vote in Chicago. The Project Vote assignment seemed an unlikely one, neither high-profile nor high-paying, certainly not the gilt-edged job that Obama, president of the Harvard Law Review, could command in the big city. But the mission rang true with Rogers, who became the financial co-chairman of Obama’s effort.