Charting your legacy? Think of your values.(THE LAST LAUGH)

It seems like every other article I read or edit refers to the need for women to identify their values and act on them. Those of us with snow on the rooftop (unless we dye it) get frequent reminders that there may be more days behind us than in front of us, and that it's time to put our passion where our values are.

Last month I was forced to attend a program on women and philanthropy, the seventh annual one created by women at the University of Wisconsin Foundation. I say "forced" because three times I was reminded of it: a mailing, a free-lancer's question of whether she should cover it, and a university friend asking whether I would attend. She invited me to use her registration because she'd be out of town. What could I say?

It was lovely and tasteful and thoughtful, once past the notion that it was a thinly disguised effort to get women to donate money to the University of Wisconsin. But unlike all the efforts I have resisted since graduating from its journalism school some 40 years ago, it got me to thinking about my own personal legacy.

Beyond producing an incredible daughter and helping about 2,000 women each month to become "enlightened, encouraged, empowered and enraged" in print and thousands more on the Web, I hope to have modeled how to have fun while changing lives. Now the philanthropy program got me to wondering how I could leverage what financial assets I have into some direct mind-messing of young students, particularly women. Here are three ways that come to mind:

Mentoring your viewpoints

At WIHE we have a very informal mentoring program. When a young woman hears about us--either by word-of-mouth or through our connection with a writing class at the University of Wisconsin--we invite her out to the International Headquarters. At the "interview" we decide if our interests and styles are compatible. Of more than a dozen interns, we've provided strong references for all but one, most of whom have landed good jobs as a result.

Recently we giggled over news from our first intern ever, who is now director of a women's faculty resource center at an Ivy League university. Her boss recommended she read WIHE, mainly because it was published by two gutsy women. Our former intern laughed, told her she didn't know half the story. And did she recall the ...