$text = "1981 born; 1993 7th grade; 1995 9th grade; 1999 RPI; 2001 TPC";
@section = ('\d{4}', '([^;]+)');

$text =~ m{
  (?{ @s = map [], 1 .. @section })

  (?:
    (?{ local $s[0] = [ @{ $s[0] }, [ length "$`$&" ] ] })
     \d{4}
    (?{ $s[0][-1][1] = length "$`$&" })

    \s+

    (?{ local $s[1] = [ @{ $s[1] }, [ length "$`$&" ] ] })
     [^;]+
    (?{ $s[1][-1][1] = length "$`$&" })

    (?: ;\s+ | $ )
  )+

  (?{ @watch = @s })
}x;


for (0 .. $#watch) {
  print "$section[$_] matched in the following places:\n";
  while (my $find = shift @{ $watch[$_] }) {
    my ($s, $e) = @$find;
    print
      substr($text, 0, $s),
      "<\e[1m", substr($text, $s, $e-$s), "\e[m>",
      substr($text, $e),
      "\n";
  }
}