美國大學學生半工半讀，無債務負擔

The Friday afternoon computer science class at Berea College looks much like similar classes on campuses all over America. But there’s one big difference. While a four-year undergraduate degree at Berea costs nearly $100,000, these students will never see a bill for tuition.

星期五下午，伯里亞學院的一堂計算機課看上去和美國各地大學的課堂一樣。不過，這其中有一個巨大的差別。儘管在伯里亞學院獲得一個四年制本科學位要花費大約10萬美元，但是這些學生卻不用交一分錢學費。

The average American takes out $24,000 in student loans to pay for their university education. Of those loans, about 14 percent slide into default. However, at this college in the small town of Berea, Kentucky, graduates rarely have to cope with that kind of crushing student debt.

美國學生人均貸款2萬4千美元左右，而無法償還貸款的比例平均是14%。不過從肯塔基州伯里亞學院畢業的學生卻很少需要擔心學生貸款問題。

Berea students pay for their education - as they study - by working at jobs provided by the college. Like most students, senior Jane Tonello works about 10 hours a week between classes. The school taught her to weave cloth that’s later sold to tourists in college stores. As a result, Tonello will soon graduate debt free.

伯里亞學院的學生半工半讀，工作機會是由學校提供的。像大部分學生一樣，4年級的簡·託內羅利用課餘時間每週工作大約10小時。學校教託內羅織布，然後在學校的商店裏出售。其結果是，託內羅很快就將無債一身輕地畢業了。

"It’s a very good feeling to know that at least I’ll have a fresh start financially when I get out of school," says Tonello, "which is very, very nice because there aren’t too many people who can say that."

她說：“每次想到我一走出校門，至少在經濟上有一個全新的開始，我就很開心。這真的是非常棒，因爲沒有很多人能夠像我這麼說。”

She hopes to be a doctor and plans to start medical school later this year. While weaving cloth on a primitive loom may not seem relevant to a career in medicine, Tonello says the work has taught her useful skills.

託內羅希望當醫生，她計劃在今年下半年進醫學院學習。雖然在原始的織布機上織布和今後的醫學生涯看上去沒有多大聯繫，但是託內羅表示，她在織布中學到了有用的技巧。

"A large portion of being a doctor is dealing with people and developing people skills, and also time management skills, and learning new things. It’s really not so different."

她說：“醫生工作的很大部分是和人打交道，學習與人交往的技巧，掌控時間的技巧，學習新東西。從這些方面來說，織布和當醫生沒有什麼區別。”

It’s exactly those kinds of skills that today’s employers are looking for, according to David Tipton, dean of Labor at Berea.

伯里亞學院院長戴維·提普頓指出，這些正是現在的僱主們要求的技巧。

"The student’s ability to work in teams, to have initiative, to be accountable, to have attendance, show up on time - those type of things that really employers are looking at, those types of soft skills that anybody working anywhere would need to have to be able to be a good employee."

他說：“學生們具有團隊精神和創新思想，有責任心，出勤率高，遵守時間，這些都是僱主們看重的素質。一個人不管在哪裏工作，都需要具備這些‘軟’技巧，才能夠成爲一個好的僱員。”

When Berea College was founded in the 1850s, most Kentucky residents were subsistence farmers. The work/study program provided a way for penniless students to pay for a college education. For today’s more affluent students, the program serves a different purpose.

伯里亞學院創立於19世紀50年代，當時大多數肯塔基州居民以務農爲生。這種半工半讀的學習項目讓貧窮的學生上得起大學。對現在經濟上更加寬裕的學生來說，這個項目起到另外一種作用。"It seems that now-a-days, a lot of times students have never worked and so it is a new experience for some of them," says Tipton. "A lot of them you’re trying to train from the very beginning on what it means to work."

提普頓院長說：“現在，很多學生們從來沒有工作過，所以這對他們中的一些人是一段全新的經歷。我們從一開始就要讓學生們知道，工作到底意味着什麼。”

Students are initially assigned work, ranging from grounds maintenance to counter sales in the student center. They eventually get to choose a job from more than 100 different positions, including skilled crafts like weaving and woodworking.

一開始，學校會給學生分配活幹，有的維護草坪，有的在學生中心當售貨員。最終，學生們可以從100多種不同的工作中選擇一個，其中包括需要技術的織布工和木匠活。

Berea is one of only seven so-called "work" colleges in America, but that may change. Dean Tipton says more schools are expressing an interest in Berea’s holistic approach to education.

伯里亞學院是美國七所所謂的“工作大學”中的一所，但是這種情況可能會有所改變。提普頓院長說，很多學校都有興趣嘗試伯里亞學院的這種教育方式。

"When you’re talking about educating the whole person, you’re talking about educating what we call the head - the academics; the hand - the labor; and the heart - the service or the spiritual element of the individual."

他說：“當我們談到全面教育一個人的時候，我們說的是既要教育頭腦，就是專業學習；以及手，就是勞動；還有心，就是每個人爲他人服務的精神。”

Tonella says her work hours do bring balance to life. She finds the weaving to be a welcome distraction from her medical studies. "I’m very happy to be able to have something that kind of balances out the scientific side and the creative side. And so my job is kind of like my happy time where I don’t have to think so hard."

簡·託內羅表示，織布工作確實爲她的生活帶來平衡，讓她能夠從醫學學習中暫時解脫出來，“我很開心能夠在科學和創造之外有一個平衡點。所以織布是我一天中的快樂放鬆時光，因爲我不需要過度用腦。”

America’s institutions of higher learning might benefit from Berea’s example. A recent study by prestigious Georgetown University says American colleges are not doing a good job of teaching students the kind of practical work skills the nation’s businesses will demand in the future.

美國的高等教育機構可能能從伯里亞學院得到一些啓發。最近，著名的喬治敦大學公佈的一項研究顯示，在教育學生掌握實際工作技巧的方面上，美國大學做得還很不夠。而這些技巧恰恰是美國企業未來最需要的。