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，伯里亚学院的一堂计算机课看上去和美国各地大学的课堂一样。不过，这其中有一个巨大的差别。尽管在伯里亚学院获得一个四年制本科学位要花费大约10万美元，但是这些学生却不用交一分钱学费。
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.
美国学生人均贷款2万4千美元左右，而无法偿还贷款的比例平均是14%。不过从肯塔基州伯里亚学院毕业的学生却很少需要担心学生贷款问题。
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.
伯里亚学院的学生半工半读，工作机会是由学校提供的。像大部分学生一样，4年级的简·托内罗利用课余时间每周工作大约10小时。学校教托内罗织布，然后在学校的商店里出售。其结果是，托内罗很快就将无债一身轻地毕业了。
"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."
她说：“每次想到我一走出校门，至少在经济上有一个全新的开始，我就很开心。这真的是非常棒，因为没有很多人能够像我这么说。”
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.
托内罗希望当医生，她计划在今年下半年进医学院学习。虽然在原始的织布机上织布和今后的医学生涯看上去没有多大联系，但是托内罗表示，她在织布中学到了有用的技巧。
"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."
她说：“医生工作的很大部分是和人打交道，学习与人交往的技巧，掌控时间的技巧，学习新东西。从这些方面来说，织布和当医生没有什么区别。”
It’s exactly those kinds of skills that today’s employers are looking for, according to David Tipton, dean of Labor at Berea.
伯里亚学院院长戴维·提普顿指出，这些正是现在的雇主们要求的技巧。
"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."
他说：“学生们具有团队精神和创新思想，有责任心，出勤率高，遵守时间，这些都是雇主们看重的素质。一个人不管在哪里工作，都需要具备这些‘软’技巧，才能够成为一个好的雇员。”
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.
伯里亚学院创立于19世纪50年代，当时大多数肯塔基州居民以务农为生。这种半工半读的学习项目让贫穷的学生上得起大学。对现在经济上更加宽裕的学生来说，这个项目起到另外一种作用。
"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."
提普顿院长说：“现在，很多学生们从来没有工作过，所以这对他们中的一些人是一段全新的经历。我们从一开始就要让学生们知道，工作到底意味着什么。”
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.
一开始，学校会给学生分配活干，有的维护草坪，有的在学生中心当售货员。最终，学生们可以从100多种不同的工作中选择一个，其中包括需要技术的织布工和木匠活。
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.
伯里亚学院是美国七所所谓的“工作大学”中的一所，但是这种情况可能会有所改变。提普顿院长说，很多学校都有兴趣尝试伯里亚学院的这种教育方式。
"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."
他说：“当我们谈到全面教育一个人的时候，我们说的是既要教育头脑，就是专业学习；以及手，就是劳动；还有心，就是每个人为他人服务的精神。”
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."
简·托内罗表示，织布工作确实为她的生活带来平衡，让她能够从医学学习中暂时解脱出来，“我很开心能够在科学和创造之外有一个平衡点。所以织布是我一天中的快乐放松时光，因为我不需要过度用脑。”
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.
美国的高等教育机构可能能从伯里亚学院得到一些启发。最近，著名的乔治敦大学公布的一项研究显示，在教育学生掌握实际工作技巧的方面上，美国大学做得还很不够。而这些技巧恰恰是美国企业未来最需要的。 |