Rod Chu's Holiday Letters: My 2010 Holiday Note

December 2010

5 Alban Mews
New Albany, Ohio 43054
Email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo: rgwc@insight.rr.com

A holiday note to my family, friends, and colleagues —

It‛s been a tough year for my mother Frances and me medically, but we‛ve been blessed with outstanding medical care that has gotten us well. Mom's trouble eating last year was due to a lymphoma in her esophagus. The good news is that she was totally cured with 4 chemotherapy sessions during the first half of the year. Then, after Mom‛s last treatment, I was stricken with severe abdominal pains caused by a paraduodenal hernia. The teams at Ohio State University‛s Medical Center took great care of me. The 7-inch scar down my belly is a happy reminder that I suffered absolutely no pain after the operation! Now, as I write this, Mom is in Mass General Hospital recovering from open heart surgery to replace her two defective heart valves (a problem we‛ve know about for years). Again, with a gifted surgeon and terrific patient care, she‛s doing well, and after her recovery she should feel better than she has in years. Medical treatment has advanced remarkably in our lifetimes. I‛m grateful to our educational system for its part in these advancements.

My activities with the College Board, the Cornell University Council, State Farm Bank, Peace Lutheran Church, and other groups have kept me quite busy, informed, and, I think, productive while I‛ve continued to explore full-time opportunities. I‛m still looking for that ideal match where I can apply my knowledge and talents to make a real difference. As I‛ve been writing down my thoughts on education, public policy, and life, I‛ve become even more convinced that our future depends on vibrant, forward-thinking educational institutions with educators who will take on the task of Reinventing Education to enable their students to meet the needs and challenges of a connected, multicultural world. Given America‛s educational milieu, we all need to take responsibility to work for reinvention within our own communities to build the sustainable communities and future we want for ourselves and our children.

My family joins me in wishing you and yours a new year in which we will come together to forge that fine future for our current and future generations, preparing each of us - as our doctors have been - to do good things that were once unimaginable.

Sincerely,