1987 — Full-Time

Greetings, classmates. I tried Lee Wright's suggestion and found a bunch of you on LinkedIn. Reading through the profiles was a lot of fun, but it got me to wondering about the purpose of an ink-on-paper Class Notes column such as this, in an era of electronic social networking. All I could come up with was that not everyone will have the time or interest to go online and read about classmates, yet when a nice-looking magazine shows up in their mailbox, why not check out the class column? So I pulled a couple of the more interesting profiles from LinkedIn and present them here for your old-fashioned ink-on-paper reading pleasure. I'll also share with you a very special letter that I received from Arthur Fleischmann (you know, Arthur, as in husband of Tammy). I hope you'll take the time to visit his daughter's Web site and watch the 20/20 interview. Carly is one of the most courageous young people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, at least indirectly.

 Lisa Eckstrom, from LinkedIn .… chief cook and bottle washer, part of the Eckstrom Family Foundation (nonprofit organization management industry for the last 11 years, five months).

Her description: "As you can tell from my 'title,' I'm now a sometimes-unappreciated (at least by my kids), grossly underpaid, highly overworked, usually overtired, rapidly wrinkling full-time mom to three small children. I ponder going back to work (and such a good time to look, too!) but am not sure at what anymore. Plus, with one child with a life-threatening illness that requires being able to be at school on a short moment's notice, a 'traditional' job probably won't work. So ... I spend lots of time wondering what I could do and where. What else is there to do between school drop off, laundry, dog walks, poop pickups, housecleaning, errands, meal-making and school pick-up?"

Thank you for your honesty, wit and humor, Lisa. Have you considered an EFF blog? I think you would have a lot of appreciative readers, and then you could ask all your Kellogg classmates who work for brand companies to sponsor you!

Another LinkedIn entry from the "Lisa Files" .…

Lisa Hammerman Dworkin has worked in the financial futures industry, as a teacher and a curriculum designer. She is founder and president of Money Masters Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching financial literacy skills. She is a certified teacher with endorsements in business, social studies and science. Lisa is a MoneySmart week partner with The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a member of the National Middle School Association, the Global Association of Teachers of Economics and the Illinois Jump$tart Coalition. Money Masters' mission is to provide students with the superior financial literacy skills they need to succeed in life. Its goal is to maximize students' outcomes through the combination of experience, quality materials and high expectations.

This is such a great idea, Lisa. I think Money Masters should have a hand in crafting middle/high school curricula across the country. It amazes me how absolutely clueless young adults heading into the "real world" are about financial matters and managing money. Perhaps one good thing to come out of this recession will be an increased awareness of Lisa's cause.

Finally, here are some excerpts from Arthur's letter … "Life is pretty good despite the economic meltdown and other fun. Our agency, john st (johnst.com), is eight years old. We have about 110 people and do work in traditional media, digital, design and strategic planning. We have some interesting clients from pharma to automotive, packaged goods to retail. We just finished the first phase of a large global branding assignment that took me to the U.K., Brazil and the U.S. One of my partners spent the better part of three months in Sweden, Germany, Mexico, China and Japan. LOTS of air miles. But now we're home.

"My kids are growing up. Matthew (19) finished his first year in university in Halifax and loves it. My twin daughters are 14. Taryn started high school in the fall. Carly, who is severely autistic, has made unbelievable intellectual and communication breakthroughs. These were covered by "ABC World News with Charles Gibson" in 2008. A seriously delayed segment on "20/20" aired Aug. 7. Carly was thought to be mentally retarded but has since gone on to prove she is smarter than most of us. And funny as hell. Her future is still unknown, but it will likely include some sort of university education — perhaps beyond, as she sees herself as an autism advocate. You can follow her on Twitter (carlysvoice) or see the blog she occasionally updates (carlysvoice.com). I'm working on a book deal now — a memoir about her, as we were approached by several publishers last year when the news piece broke.

"I connected by phone with Wendy Mueller Serrino last month. She now does a lot of work with UNICEF and had just gotten back from Laos when I spoke with her. She has four kids, the oldest just started at Brown this year. She lives in the Chicago area still."

Did he get it right, Wendy? Please let me know if there are any corrections. And for all the rest of you, please don't let me develop a LinkedIn "dependency." Send me some news the old-fashioned way. Till next time.