Local hero Fortunately for his neighbors — and his city — Pedro Ramos hasn’t forgotten where he came from. And as president of the Board of Public Education, he’s in the thick of the fight over the future of Philadelphia’s public schools. HIV prevention goes to the barrio Student spotlight: Thouron Scholar builds a strong foundation Staff Q&A: Willie Glymph looks back at 35 years on the road for Penn Research: How the brain divides its labors Famous former inmate blasts prison system Asians emerge High anxiety? New center can help Six to receive honorary degrees Sing-along time Current gets gold medals Hip-hop meets Ivy League For What It's Worth: And now, managed learning! Academic All-Ivies Event Listings Editor's Pick What's on WXPN A primer for tomorrow's working women Learn the moves from the champs Readers' Best News Briefs Bookquick Quoted Recently Awards & Honors Appointments Conference Call Campus Buzz

April 20, 2000 Current gets gold medals The judges liked our concept— that we had expected. But we hadn’t expected to beat the magazine writers at their own game. Along with a Gold Medal for Internal Audience Periodicals in this year’s CASE Circle of Excellence Awards, Pennsylvania Current won a Gold Medal for Periodical Staff Writing, a category dominated by glossy magazines such as co-winner Tulanian of Tulane University. “We were thrilled that our writing outshined the 4,000-word stories in the more heavily financed magazines,” said Editor Libby Rosof. In the Internal Audience Periodicals category, the Current was one of seven gold medalists; it shared top honors for weekly or biweekly two-color tabloids with SUNY-Binghamton’s Inside Binghamton University. A complete list of winners will appear on the CASE Web site (www.case.org/awards) in June.