By Christian Mignot

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton praises program as ‘way of the future’

Technology and teens are similar in some ways: They both change at a very rapid pace, and they both can be bewildering and problematic for seniors.

Los Altos Hills resident Sandy Pillalamarri, 15, is developing a community service project where teen-agers will help seniors create oral biographies with the use of presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, essentially killing two birds with one stone. The 15-minute-long presentations usually include photographs carefully hand-picked by the teen-age volunteer and senior, and voice narration recorded over the top in question-answer form.

“This is a great way for teen-agers to learn about the older generation,” Pillalamarri said. “We get to learn about a whole other side of these people, and it’s more meaningful than the usual punch afternoons that students may hold for seniors at places like Lytton Gardens.”

She said the presentations are given to the family of the senior as part of their legacy after they pass away.

This was the case with Beulah Harrington, the first senior Pillalamarri worked with to develop a presentation.

“Unfortunately, Beulah passed away four months after we did the presentation, due to cancer,” she said. “But her family was very grateful that they had the chance to remember her life with the presentation.”

Rita Ghatak, Pillalamarri’s mother and a Palo Alto-based gerontologist, said the project would help to combat the loneliness that she sees in her patients daily. She said many of her patients have expressed interest in having their oral biographies created, and such a project would allow for them to be made free of charge and more intimately.

“The young generations help to keep us young,” said Albine Bech, who most recently worked with Pillalamarri to create her biography. “We learn a great deal from each other and have developed a friendship through this process.”

Pillalamarri’s intent is to later broaden her program so that it becomes a permanent feature at retirement homes such as Lytton Gardens and Palo Alto Commons.

She has brought up her ideas with the community service program of her school, Castilleja High School, and has also received expressions of interest from Gunn High School and Palo Alto High School.

The project received praise from ex-President Bill Clinton, who received documentation outlining the idea when he attended a meeting for Stree: Global Investments in Women, an organization that Ghatak leads.

“He wrote a letter to me a few days later and said my project was the way of the future,” Pillalamarri said.