PBS高端访谈:对大学选择的探索

 　　MONA ISKANDER: Every year, thousands of young people around the country celebrate this important rite¹ ofpassage: college graduation. For generations it's been the traditional route to adulthood² and success.

　　So how did 21-year-old Sebastian Stant, a college dropout³, end up here working side by side with the president of a multi-million dollar tech start-up?

　　SEBASTIAN STANT: I feel like the sky's the limit right now, and when I was at college, the limit was 4.0. And, like, here it's, like, if I work hard enough, like, I can pretty much, like, accomplish, like, what I’m trying to do.

　　MONA ISKANDER: He got this job through a non-profit organization called Enstitute – it's a two year apprenticeship⁴ program for young would-be tech entrepreneurs that aims to be an alternative to higher education.

　　Sebastian works with Daniel Klaus, the president of Airtime, a video communications company.

　　DANIEL KLAUS: Sebastian in particular has done a great job of sort of, like, grabbing onto a task, learning about it, asking for input⁵, having -- you know, receiving input as we go, and learning along the way. So it's actually been really productive for us.

　　MONA ISKANDER: More and more young people like Sebastian Stant are looking for alternatives to a collegeeducation partly because while college grads earn much more over the course of their lifetimes than those with only a high school degree, recent college graduates have struggled. In 2011, estimates are that half were either jobless or working in a job that didn’t require a four year degree.

　　These kinds of numbers are what prompted Kane Sarhan and Shaila Ittycheria to act.

　　KANE SARHAN: We believe that you need to learn. That you don't just graduate high school ready to run a company or -- ready to work anywhere. But we think you just need to be able to learn different ways. And it doesn't all have to be in a classroom.

　　MONA ISKANDER: Sarhan and Ittycheria are the brains behind Enstitute. Both are big believers that learning on the job provides far more value than learning in the classroom. For Ittycheria, that comes from personal experience.

　　SHAILA ITTYCHERIA: When I joined the startup community, saying I was a Harvard MBA was the biggest thingto shut doors in my face before anything else. I actually stopped mentioning that I was an MBA because people have many interpretations⁶ of what that word means. And they actually don't really know how good you are. So instead, I started working at another startup for free where I proved my competency and my value.

　　MONA ISKANDER: Soon after, when she got a job in charge of hiring new talent for a tech start up, her belief was reinforced that experience is more important than a fancy degree.

　　SHAILA ITTYCHERIA: Time and time again, regardless of what school these young adults came from the best Ivies⁷ to small unheard of community colleges, they couldn't critically think through anything. And it didn't inspire any confidence in me. If I give you a task can you actually get this done.

　　MONA ISKANDER: So in November 2011, she and Sarhan, who also worked for the same tech start up, quit their jobs and created Enstitute. They raised $90,000 by liquidating⁸ their personal savings⁹. … and another $300,000 from private investors¹⁰, including Microsoft. When they solicited¹¹ applications… nearly 500 young people applied¹² and 11 were chosen.

　　KANE SARHAN: You know, we get hundreds and hundreds of applications saying, "You know, college isn't working for me. I can't afford it. It's not the right program for me. This is what I’ve been looking for."

　　MONA ISKANDER: Take Sebastian Stant. He left Virginia Tech after a year and a half.

　　MONA ISKANDER: In college there are classes you take that won't necessarily be part of your career but make you a whole person. I mean, do--you miss those kinds of classes?

　　SEBASTIAN STANT: No. I remember my freshman¹³ year sitting in my--astronomy class. And it was a 90-minutecourse and I remember just sitting in the class thinking that some other aspiring¹⁴, young tech entrepreneurwas using that 90 minutes to, like, further his career.

　　MONA ISKANDER: Sebastian and the others in the Enstitute program still spend 6-8 hours a week on academic pursuits… everything from art history to engineering.

　　But they spend at least 40 hours a week working for tech companies that provide two year apprenticeships through Enstitute. The companies pay Enstitute a small fee to access applications and a recruiting fee if they end up hiring the fellow full time. Companies include, bit.ly, thrillst and flavorpill.

　　For the last year, each fellow lived for free in this Manhattan apartment, sharing cooking and cleaning duties, and living on their earnings¹⁵ of $800-$1,000 a month.

　　MONA ISKANDER: So an outsider looking at your program might say, it's two years very little pay." no guarantee that-- that any of these young people will get jobs in those industries. I mean, it's a big risk.

　　KANE SARHAN: I think when you come and sit down with our students and you ask them if they feel like they're not going to get a job, they would 100 percent disagree with you. Right? They see firsthand the networks they're being exposed to, the people they get to work with, the--on the job training and education that they're getting.

　　MONA ISKANDER: Once or twice a week they invite tech entrepreneurs to network with the fellows.

　　JEFF SELINGO: The technology industry as a whole has been very used to this idea of students not going to college and getting certified¹⁶. I'm not quite sure that the rest of the economy's quite ready for that.

　　MONA ISKANDER: Jeff Selingo is an editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education, a weekly news service that covers academic affairs. He says that higher education is in a state of crisis. For public universities alone, instate tuition rose 66 percent between 2002 and 2013 – making it unaffordable for many Americans.And that's even harder for parents of college age students to swallow, given the difficulty many kids havegetting a job once they graduate.

　　JEFFREY SELINGO: Right now, we have this one-size-fits-all system that treats most students alike. Students want a more flexible experience. They want to have a chance to work. They want to have a chance to study abroad. They want to have a chance to learn online, as well as face-to-face. This is where I think that higher education really needs to take--a cue from--a place like Enstitute and say, "how do we build into the curriculum, that kind of experiential learning?”

　　MONA ISKANDER: I mean, they really see themselves as an alternative to college. Do you agree with that?

　　JEFFREY SELINGO: I see them as an alternative to college--at 18. But having a college degree, at some point in your life, is still the best insurance against unemployment and getting higher salaries over the course of your lifetime.

　　MONA ISKANDER: Even so, more and more alternatives to colleges are popping up for a small number of students with an entrepreneurial bent¹⁷. Pay-pal founder¹⁸ Peter Thiel started a fellowship giving $100,000 to young adults to skip college and focus on entrepreneurship full time. Uncollege Gap Year is a program in which young people design their own education paths by pursuing creative projects around the world.

　　And the Mycelium School is a 9-month residential¹⁹ education program for young people interested in social entrepreneurship.

　　Selingo says that these types of options, including apprenticeships for skilled trade jobs like electricians and carpenters should be encouraged.

　　JEFF SELINGO: It used to be in the United States that apprenticeships were very big. And the idea that not everybody necessarily went to college and that you kind of learned on the job. And this still is truein other parts of the world. In Germany, for example, a lot of students end up going to apprenticeships instead of college.

　　MONA ISKANDER: As for Enstitute, new companies have already signed up as it plans to expand to 100 fellows and open offices in Washington DC and St. Louis this January.

　　And for Sebastian Stant, he's been offered a full time job with the company where he's doing his apprenticeship. But he has ambitions to one day start his own business creating technical innovations in the political campaign field.

　　MONA ISKANDER: What happens if your dreams of building a company aren't realized and you need to go intothe job market?

　　SEBASTIAN STANT: So, and I think this kind of, like-- relieved my mom a little bit. Is the idea of, like, college is always going to be there, and they’re always going to want my tuition, and there's always going to have, like, space for me. And so if worse comes to worse, like, I guess I can go back to college.

1 rite   

n.典礼，惯例，习俗

参考例句：

• This festival descends from a religious rite.这个节日起源于宗教仪式。
• Most traditional societies have transition rites at puberty.大多数传统社会都为青春期的孩子举行成人礼。

2 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

3 dropout   

n.退学的学生；退学；退出者

参考例句：

• There is a high dropout rate from some college courses.有些大学课程的退出率很高。
• In the long haul,she'll regret having been a school dropout.她终归会后悔不该中途辍学。

4 apprenticeship   

n.学徒身份；学徒期

参考例句：

• She was in the second year of her apprenticeship as a carpenter. 她当木工学徒已是第二年了。
• He served his apprenticeship with Bob. 他跟鲍勃当学徒。

5 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

6 interpretations   

n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 )；表演；演绎；理解

参考例句：

• This passage is open to a variety of interpretations. 这篇文章可以有各种不同的解释。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The involved and abstruse passage makes several interpretations possible. 这段艰涩的文字可以作出好几种解释。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 ivies   

常春藤( ivy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This is was green at a time when other ivies had pooped out. 这株常春藤在其他常春藤已凋谢时依然青翠。
• These Chinese ivies climbed upwards and covered the entire wall. 那些常春藤攀援而上，爬满了整面墙。

8 liquidating   

v.清算( liquidate的现在分词 )；清除（某人）；清偿；变卖

参考例句：

• Liquidating collateral is clearly a second best source of repayment. Why? 抵押品显然并不是获得贷款偿还的最佳方法。为什么？ 来自互联网
• There are often costs and inconvenience associated with liquidating other assets. 这些资产变现时总须花费，也不方便。 来自互联网

9 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

10 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

11 solicited   

v.恳求( solicit的过去式和过去分词 )；（指娼妇）拉客；索求；征求

参考例句：

• He's already solicited their support on health care reform. 他已就医疗改革问题请求他们的支持。 来自辞典例句
• We solicited ideas from Princeton University graduates and under graduates. 我们从普林斯顿大学的毕业生与大学生中征求意见。 来自辞典例句

12 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

13 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

14 aspiring   

adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求

参考例句：

• Aspiring musicians need hours of practice every day. 想当音乐家就要每天练许多小时。
• He came from an aspiring working-class background. 他出身于有抱负的工人阶级家庭。 来自辞典例句

15 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

16 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

17 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

18 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

19 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。