ALUM TESTS 'BOUNDARIES' ON REALITY SHOW

Hodges

Some people bum around Europe before entering the "real world," and some take a dream vacation. John Hodges '99 joined a grueling 30-day trek from Vancouver, British Columbia, to the Arctic Circle. But he had some incentive-the possibility of winning $100,000 and a new truck.

Hodges was one of 15 people who took part in the trek for No Boundaries, a reality program that aired only four episodes on the Warner Bros. network this year but was a big hit in Canada. Although the program may return on TV in the United States later this year, Hodges was able to admit he didn't win the big money. He made it over half way, however, and was one of only seven people left before being voted out of the group.

"It was a great experience, and it was really a lot of fun," he says, noting that the cut-throat tactics of popular reality shows like Survivor weren't really prevalent in his experience. "We were all one big team. There was no gratification in kicking anyone out, so it didn't hurt as much when I was voted out."

Before being "sent home," he had some once-in-a-lifetime experiences. The group learned how to sail an America's Cup yacht, only to be challenged by having to rescue an overboard teammate. Hodges volunteered to be the one rescued from the frigid water. The team also went whitewater rafting, spent a night atop a glacier, herded cattle, and got new mountain bikes to use in a competition that Hodges won.

"The premise was like Outward Bound. We had to do all these really big challenges to get some sort of reward," he says. "I had never done anything like that before, but it was so much fun."

The barrage of reality-based programs affected how some people played the game, Hodges admits, but most of the challenges and even the trek itself required the team to work closely together. He also saw what took place behind the scenes, including where the people go when they're voted out.

In this case, booted No Boundaries members were flown to a secluded three-star lodge in the Yukon until the remaining players finished. Hodges spent only a week there, but the gourmet food, top-notch lodging, and recreational activities made for a real vacation.

Now back to reality, Hodges works as an epidemiologist in the Yale AIDS program tracking the progress of HIV. He hopes to work with Ford, the sponsor of No Boundaries, to bring all 15 participants together again for a bike marathon to raise money for AIDS research.

Hodges said he applied for the show on a whim after getting his master's degree from Yale in May 2001. Despite his lack of experience participating in extreme sports, Hodges said he had an edge.

"The cold aspect certainly didn't bother me. After spending four years in Rochester, it desensitizes you. I never felt uncomfortable at all."

WHAT'S YOUR 'MONEY STORY'?

Klainer

As an organizational consultant, Pamela York Klainer '80W (PhD) would often meet with top executives of large corporations. She was surprised by how often the conversation would turn from business issues to money and how many executives felt that earning a greater income was necessary for their own happiness.

Those conversations led Klainer to write How Much is Enough?, a sort of self-help and personal finance book centered around a person's relationship with money.

"The basic question for successful people is to figure out how much is enough," Klainer says. "We live in a culture where people will never feel they've gotten to that point. In the post-World War II days, people were very family oriented, but that's not true anymore. Now, money takes on greater importance to people."

For that reason, Klainer encourages people to explore their own "money story." Like a family history, a money story looks back at a person's life and how money influenced major decisions or what importance it will play in reaching future goals.

She cites the example of an executive who was earning $400,000 a year but had to travel a lot and work long hours. He never knew his father, so he claimed that he put so much effort into his job to provide a better life for his own children. "He didn't have a father, and now his kids didn't have one," Klainer says. "The means to achieving your goals aren't always the first thing that comes to mind."

In America, Klainer says people commonly follow the formula of money plus success equals happiness. She points out that many people make career and life decisions that place far less importance on money, but they're made to feel guilty for earning and owning less.

"Money is a very tough thing to talk about," she says. "But you have to explore your goals, both financially and psychologically, before you can make decisions more openly about money. Those money decisions are often critical ones in your life."

Writing such a book seemed an obvious choice for an author with Klainer's diverse professional career. She taught for several years, including courses on money in the context of values at Colgate Rochester Divinity School. Until 1991, she was co-owner of Professional Planning Associates, a financial planning company. She left there to work as a business consultant.

But perhaps her most personal experience was working with the Peace Corps in Panama right after college. There she saw firsthand how people in other countries deal with having very little money.

"There are different ways to have a career," she says. "Some people think you become something and are that forever, but I've done something different every eight to 10 years. Once you become comfortable making decisions that focus around money, you can figure out its importance in your own life and help set your own path."

'I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO MY THE FLAG . . .'

Bellamy

Perhaps Francis Bellamy-journalist, advertising executive, ordained minister-would have appreciated the newly recharged debate swirling around the most famous 23 words he ever wrote. And around two that he did not.

Bellamy, a member of Rochester's Class of 1876 and the author of the original Pledge of Allegiance, was much in the news this summer when a federal court in California ruled that the words "under God," inserted into the Pledge by Congress in 1954, made reciting the schoolhouse staple unconstitutional.

As Rochester Review was going to press, the 2-1 opinion issued by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Sacramento had been put on hold, but the political furor sparked by the late June ruling resulted in a renewed appreciation for Bellamy and his legacy.

The former Alpha Delt was a staff member of the magazine The Youth's Companion when, in 1892, he wrote the first published version of the oath to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage to America.

The original-two handwritten copies of which are included in a collection of Bellamy papers housed in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation at Rush Rhees Library-read: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands-one Nation indivisible-with Liberty and Justice for all."

The single sentence proved enormously popular (in part, some historians say, because of a well-crafted advertising campaign), and by the early 20th century, the Pledge had become a routine part of America's public patriotism.

In 1924, the words "the flag of the United States of America" replaced "my flag" to counter concerns that immigrant children might not understand to which nation they were pledging their allegiance.

And, in 1954, the now-controversial words "under God" were inserted between "one nation" and "indivisible" by a Cold War-era Congress eager to distinguish America from its Communist counterparts.

So, what would Francis Bellamy do? as Hendrik Hertzberg asked last July in The New Yorker.

Bellamy, an ordained Baptist minister who left the clergy to pursue a career as a writer, editor, and advertising executive, died in 1931, well before the Pledge could find itself much of an issue in a court of law or in the courts of public and political opinion.

Hertzberg notes that Bellamy "wouldn't have liked the politics behind 'under God,' but the phrase itself probably wouldn't have bothered him. . . . As an editor and rhetori-cian, though, Bellamy would notice that the phrase has been inserted in the wrong place. It should be 'one nation indivisible, under God.' . . . . For a white guy from Boston, Bellamy had a pretty good sense of rhythm."

PUTTING THE MAGIC BACK IN READING

Nel

If you want to know what a muggle is or the proper rules to playing Quidditch, there's a host of books that will help you delve into the world of Harry Potter. But if you want to pick up on the literary allusions made by J. K. Rowling, author of the popular boy wizard novels, Philip Nel '92 can point you in the right direction.

His critical study, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Novels: A Reader's Guide, a slim volume that is part of a series on popular literary criticism, has been garnering as much attention as a three-headed dog named Fluffy.

Sparked by the release last year of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie, readers are turning to books like Nel's for insights on the bestselling children's series. He's been quoted in USA Today and appeared as a guest on WNYC's On the Line with Brian Lehrer among others.

"The movie has certainly inspired the latest flurry of attention, but the books themselves have been doing all right without the movie," says the Kansas State University professor of English.

Rowling's books work on many levels, Nel says, which is why his study is helpful for the critical reader. In his book, he points out Rowling's literary allusions, highlights some of the connections between her novels and other fantasy books, and he suggests other authors-such as Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl-for enthusiastic readers.

"Rowling is an extremely efficient writer whose words are vividly descriptive and actively propel the plot forward," he says. "And it's still a mystery novel that keeps you turning the pages. It's both literary and fun."

Rowling's books were so popular that The New York Times had to create a new category for them on the newspaper's bestseller list. Popular with children and adults alike, the books appeal to the reason people began reading as youngsters, Nel says.

"Good children's literature reminds us of why we read in the first place, which is because reading is fun," he says. "Another reason is that these books appeal to a common fantasy that we're better, we're special-we may just not know it yet."

An English and psychiatry major at Rochester, Nel taught a course called "Harry Potter's Library: J. K. Rowling Text and Context." He scoffs at criticism that children's books aren't real literature.

"A lot of people see studying children's literature as a waste of adult time, but that's not true. Children's literature is as literary as much adult literature. The Potter books prove that," he says. "The books children read are instrumental in shaping in a small level the way children think about themselves and the world."

A PROJECT TO BELIEVE IN

David Satcher '72M (Res), the former Surgeon General of the United States, is returning to Rochester to participate in a project he strongly believes in.
Building on his focus as Surgeon General, Satcher will act as senior advisor for community health at the Medical Center, serving as a consultant to Project Believe. The initiative combines research, education, and creative health interventions in an effort to make Rochester the healthiest community in America by 2020.

"Dr. Satcher is one of the country's foremost authorities on community health and is well versed in the complex issues that must be confronted and solved to achieve our ambitious goal," says Jay Stein, CEO of the Medical Center.

Satcher will also serve in adjunct faculty positions with the School of Medicine and Dentistry's pediatrics and community health and preventive medicine departments.
Satcher was also set to become director of the National Center for Primary Care at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta in September.

DATING AN AGING UNIVERSE

Using dying stars as their measurement, researchers led by University of British Columbia astronomer Harvey Richer '71 (PhD) determined that the universe is about 13 billion years old-give or take a half billion years.

A significant result of Richer's study is that the finding so closely compared to a completely different aging method that is based on the rate of expansion of the universe. That method came up with a range of between 13 and 14 billion years.

"The two methods are absolutely unrelated to each other, yet they give the same result," Richer told reporters. "It's amazing."

Richer's group studied the faintest dying stars-called white dwarfs-that they could find through data from the Hubble Space Telescope. These stars, which have exhausted all their fuel and collapsed on themselves, are cooling at a measurable rate. Because scientists have determined that stars did not form until about a billion years after the universe's initial "big bang," measuring the dimmest of white dwarfs put the age in the 13-billion-year range.

AND THE AWARD (AGAIN) GOES TO . . .

Douglas Besterman '85 can add another trophy to his shelf of honors. He took home his third Tony Award this year for orchestration (along with Ralph Burns) for the play Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Besterman already has Broadway's top honors as an orchestrator for last year's smash hit, The Producers, as well as for 1999's Fosse. He was also nominated in 2000 for The Music Man.

Thoroughly Modern Millie was the big winner at the 2002 Awards, taking home six Tonys, including best musical and best actress. But the story of a small-town girl's quest for love and riches in New York City received mixed reviews, being labeled by The New York Times as "an extravagant emblem of a season trembling with uncertainty."

FILMMAKER CAPTURES AIDS-RAVAGED COUNTRY

Rosen

As a student, Renee Rosen '92 loved South Africa from afar, fascinated with its political and social complexities. After getting her master's degree from New York University, she spent three years in the country as a developmental aid worker and found a more important issue that attracted her attention: the AIDS epidemic.

"AIDS threatens to undo so much of the progress they've made as a country, and the world is turning a blind eye," she says. "There's tremendous fallout in terms of the expenditure to treat a disease that's ravaging the country."

According to Rosen, 20 percent of the country's population aged 13 to 49 are HIV positive, and by 2010, as many as 3 million South African children will lose one or both parents to AIDS. Having seen the problem firsthand, Rosen and South African native Xoliswa Sithole produced the documentary Shouting Silent, which examines the effects on the AIDS pandemic through the eyes of orphaned children.

The film opened at the Washington, D.C.-based DC Fest earlier this year and won the grand jury prize for long documentary. It was also featured as part of an African Film Festival at the Lincoln Center in New York City in April.

"The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive," Rosen says. "People's first reaction is that they want to give money, so we're going to try to raise funds for the people in the film. I think we succeeded in the goal of humanizing the issue."

Shouting Silent is the filmmakers' first feature, although Rosen has produced a short video for the World Bank. She never expected to make films, but a class in photography and documentary production at NYU seemed a perfect tie-in to her interest in politics, which was her focus at Rochester.

Rosen and Sithole, a South African who lost her own parents to AIDS, financed most of the movie themselves, each contributing $5,000 before CNN Johannesburg Bureau Chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault discovered the project and helped raise funds.

Over three years, the project became more than just a political issue to Rosen, who says she was amazed when they began filming in rural areas and talking to orphans.
"The life expectancy rates are down to 40 years in South Africa, and they will continue to decrease unless the epidemic is nipped in the bud," she says. "People may know of the disease, but we're showing how children have their lives impacted. Those are the ones you don't think about."

The filmmakers hope to have the film picked up and shown more broadly in the United States to help spread word of the country's plight.

"The economy has 40 percent unemployment and so many post-apartheid issues that this is just another calamity to them," Rosen says. "This gives people an idea of the human aspect and gives the children affected by the disease a voice. We hope this will effect a change in behavior."

ROCHESTER GRADS WEAVE WEB OF SERVICE

Rochester grads head Auragen Communications

Far from their days of creating Web pages out of their bedrooms with a few thousand dollars, Auragen Communications, founded by three Rochester graduates in 1995, hit a major milestone last year when it was ranked on Inc. magazine's 2001 "500 List."

The Rochester Web design firm ranked 193 on the list of the fastest growing companies in the country. Led by CEO Fred Beer '95, executive vice president Damir Saracevic '95, and vice president David Thiel '95, the company also placed among Rochester's 100 fastest-growing privately held businesses in a list compiled by the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper.

"Those are both goals that we have been working toward for some time," says Thiel. "It's very rewarding."

It seemed a natural choice to keep their company in Rochester, and now, in recognition of their Inc. designation, the company began a project to give back to the community. Through their "500 Days of Service" program, Auragen's employees will donate time to create Web sites for nonprofit organizations and participate in other community service efforts. They have already donated their time and talents to the Alzehimer's Association, the YMCA, and the Ad Council of Rochester, among others.

Now among the largest Web development firms in Rochester with nearly three-dozen full-time employees, Auragen was founded soon after the three men's graduation. Thiel says the lessons he learned at the University about creating an individual academic experience and thinking independently became the core theme for the business.

"We each found our independence and self-reliance at Rochester," he says.

Starting with a Web site for Parkleigh gift store on Park Avenue, Auragen's clients now include Wegmans, Kodak, Frontier, and Global Crossing. Many have been with the firm from the early days.

"From the beginning, we placed a focus on building long-term relationships with our clients. Most we've had for six years or so. It's definitely the right way to do it."
Auragen's founders have a similar attitude toward giving back to the community.

"The 500 Days of Service is a way of packaging and branding what we do from a community service standpoint. We thought we could either buy expensive ads or do great things for the community," Thiel says. "We're looking for opportunities to do whatever good we can."

That's part of the core values that Thiel says makes Auragen stand out and proved effective in helping the company continue to grow, even when many online businesses floundered recently.

"We're a values-driven company, and we believe in doing right by our customers and our employees," he says.

"None of us ever went out and bought BMWs. We never started thinking from the standpoint that we're a big company and we deserve perks. We just think from the standpoint of how else can we bring value to our employees."

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