VOA标准英语2011--Students Earn Debt-Free College Degree

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.
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.
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.
VOA - M. Osborne
Jane Tonella, who hopes to be a doctor, learned how to weave on a traditional loom¹ to earn her tuition at Berea College.
"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."
She hopes to be a doctor and plans to start medical school later this year. While weaving cloth on a primitive² loom may not seem relevant to a career in medicine, Tonello says the work has taught her useful skills.
"A large portion of being a doctor is dealing³ with people and developing people skills, and also time management skills, and learning new things. It's really not so different."
It's exactly those kinds of skills that today's employers are looking for, according to David Tipton, dean of Labor⁴ at Berea.
"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."
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 affluent⁵ students, the program serves a different purpose.
Courtesy Berea College
The first students at Berea were children of poor farmers, who could not afford to pay for a college education.
"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."
Students are initially⁶ 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.
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 holistic⁷ approach to education.
"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."
Tonella says her work hours do bring balance to life. She finds the weaving to be a welcome distraction⁸ 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."
America's institutions of higher learning might benefit from Berea's example. A recent study by prestigious⁹ 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.

1 loom   

n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近

参考例句：

• The old woman was weaving on her loom.那位老太太正在织布机上织布。
• The shuttle flies back and forth on the loom.织布机上梭子来回飞动。

2 primitive   

adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物

参考例句：

• It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
• His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。

3 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。

6 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

7 holistic   

adj.从整体着眼的，全面的

参考例句：

• There is a fundamental ambiguity in the use of word "whole" in recent holistic literature.在近代的整体主义著作中，“整体”这个词的用法极其含混。
• In so far as historicism is technological,its approach is not piecemeal,but "holistic".仅就历史决定论是一种技术而论，它的方法不是渐进的，而是“整体主义的”。

8 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

9 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。