VOA慢速英语2016 在杜兰大学边学边玩（在线收听）

Balancing Work, Play at Tulane University 在杜兰大学边学边玩

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is part of a new ongoing series about international student life at colleges and universities across the U.S. Please join us over the next several weeks as we bring you stories about these amazing individuals and the American higher education system as a whole.

Usually, students want to go to a university that will give them the most education and experience possible.

一般来说，学生们都希望去那些能够提供尽可能多教育和经历的学校学习。

But some students, like Scherzade Agha from Pakistan, seek a college that encourages students to offer something in return.

但一些学生，如来自巴基斯坦的Scherzade Agha，寻找的则是鼓励学生有所回报的学校。

Agha, who was born in Islamabad, has never been afraid of a challenge.After finishing her undergraduate degree, she went to work for Bank Alfalah Limited. She managed almost 100 offices across Pakistan.

来自伊斯兰堡的Agha从不畏惧挑战。本科毕业之后，她到阿尔法拉银行工作。她要管理巴基斯坦近100个办公室。

But Agha soon learned that if she wanted to keep moving forward in her career, she would need international experience.

但Agha很快就意识到，要想在职业道路上更进一步，就需要拥有国际经验。

So she decided to get her master’s degree in finance at a U.S. university.Agha applied to the Fulbright scholarship program. In 2015, the program placed her at Tulane University.

因此，她决定在美国一所大学攻读硕士学位。Agha申请了布莱特奖学金计划。2015年，在该计划的帮助下，Agha开始到杜兰大学就读。

Tulane first opened as a medical college in 1834. The school is a private research university located in the southern U.S. city of New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans is famous for its music, cooking and colonial European buildings.The city also has a rich and unique mix of French, Spanish, African and Creole cultures.

1834年时，杜兰大学作为医学院成立。这是所私立研究性大学，位于美国路易斯安那州南部的新奥尔良市。新奥尔良以音乐、烹饪和欧洲殖民建筑著称。此外，新奥尔良还拥有法国、西班牙、非洲和克里奥混杂的文化，丰富且独特。

When Agha first arrived, she did not have problems communicating.English is an official language of Pakistan, so she says there was no real language barrier.

Agha刚到达时，并不存在交流问题。英语是巴基斯坦的官方语言，因此不存在语言障碍。

She says Tulane wants students to enjoy life and have a good time.Professors frequently inform her of social events happening around the city.

她表示，杜兰大学希望学生能够享受生活，能够活得开心。教授们经常将新奥尔良将要举行的社交活动告知与她。

“It’s kind of funny that our program director, he sends us an email every week, you know? ‘Oh, there’s a party happening there.There’s a party happening there.’ ”

“很有趣的是，我们的项目主管每周都给我们发一封邮件。这里要办聚会啦。那里要办聚会啦。”

But what interested Agha most was applying what she learned in her classes to the real world. In other words, she wanted to use her education to solve problems and improve her community, not just earn a grade or improve herself.

但Agha真正感兴趣的是如何将课堂所学用于现实生活中。换句话说，她希望通过自己所受教育解决问题，改善自己的社区，而不仅仅是升学或者改善自己。

Agha wanted to be involved in the Darwin Fenner Managed Fund class. The class is a special program that accepts only 49 students from the whole school.

Agha希望参与达尔文芬纳管理基金课程。该课程是门特殊课程，只在全学校招收49名学生。

The school lends $4 million from its endowment to the students to invest in the stock market. The students are expected to help the endowment grow.Agha says that since the program first began, the students’ investments have been highly successful.

该学校从捐款中抽出400万美元，供学生在股票市场上投资。期望学生能够使得捐赠数额增长。Agha表示，此项目实施以来，学生们的投资一直很成功。

Another international student, George Wu, also wanted to give back to the Tulane community. He started his undergraduate degree in accounting there in 2015.

另外一名留学生George Wu也想回报杜兰社区。2015年，他开始在此攻读会计专业的学士学位。

Wu was born in Hong Kong, China, but ever since he was a child he knew he wanted to study in the U.S.He says Tulane has been a great experience for him.He found he loved the individual attention his professors gave him.He says he did not receive that kind of attention from his teachers in China, and he has really benefited from it.

Wu出生于中国香港，但他从小就希望去美国读书。他表示，对他来说，杜兰是个绝佳的体验。他喜欢教授对他的个别关注。他表示，中国的老师并没有给他这种关注，在此，他感到受益匪浅。

“It is a really good way for them to improve … study and knowledge.It is really important for the professors to take care of those students in the class.”

“这真的是提升学习和知识的好方法。教授关注课堂上的学生，非常重要。”

Wu wanted to help his classmates by giving them the same attention he was getting. In high school, Wu took several advanced placement, or AP, classes.These are classes which are much more challenging than regular classes. Many universities often accept these classes as college credit.

Wu希望通过把自己获得的关注给予同学，以此来帮助他们。他在高中时修读了几门大学预修课程。这些课程比一般课程更具挑战性。很多大学都将这些课程列为学分课程。

Wu now works in the Tulane Success Center, a department at the school that provides academic aid.Wu helps other students do their homework and study for their business classes – a subject in which Wu excels.

Wu目前在杜兰成功中心工作，该中心是杜兰大学的一个部门，提供学术援助。Wu为其他学生提供作业辅导，或帮助别人学习自己擅长的商务课程。

Wu also shares his culture with domestic students by working with the Tulane Chinese Students and Scholars Association. This association is a student group that holds events involving Chinese food and other traditions.

此外，Wu还与杜兰中国学生和学者协会合作，与本地学生分享中国文化。该协会是一种学生组织，经常举办活动，展示中国菜以及其他传统。

Both international and domestic students can find lots of fun things to do at Tulane and in New Orleans. The city holds frequent festivals celebrating art and music through the year, such as the famous Mardi Gras parade and New Orleans Jazz Festival.

不管是留学生还是本地学生都能在杜兰大学和新奥尔良发现很多趣事可做。新奥尔良每年都经常举办各类节日庆祝艺术和音乐，比如著名的狂欢节游行以及新奥尔良爵士音乐节。

Wu says his friends in China are jealous that he can watch the professional basketball team, the New Orleans Pelicans, whenever he wants.

Wu表示，他中国的朋友都羡慕他随时都能观看专业的篮球队比赛，即新奥尔良鹈鹕队。

Wu even joined an intramural basketball team at Tulane to make more friends.He says international students should try to make connections with domestic students however they can.

Wu甚至还在杜兰大学参加了校内篮球队，结交了更多朋友。他表示留学生应该尽可能跟本地学生进行互动。

“Sometimes you have to force yourself to get involved in a new environment.”

“有时候，你一定要强迫自己参与到新的环境中。”

Agha, the graduate student from Pakistan, says that enjoying the city and making the most of academic programs are important.But balancing work and play can be very difficult, she says.While she managed all her classes easily, she really struggled at first with being completely independent.

巴基斯坦的毕业生Agha表示，尽情享受这所城市，好好利用学术课程非常重要。但平衡工作和休闲还是很困难的。她虽然能够轻易的处理好所有的课程，但开始时却很难完全独立。

Agha comes from a wealthy family, and says she was not prepared for the responsibilities of living alone.Cooking, cleaning and other tasks were all things she had never done for herself before.

Agha来自一个富裕的家庭，并表示没有做好准备，完全独立生活。她之前从未独立做饭、洗衣或者做其他事情。

But she says learning how to solve even these simple problems has taught her a lot.

但她表示，学习如何解决这些简单的问题，让她受益匪浅。

Agha now wants to return to Pakistan after her studies and create financial tools for people living in poverty.

Agha希望毕业之后回到巴基斯坦，为贫民们创建理财工具。

Words in This Story

encourage(s) – v. to tell or advise someone to do something

challenge – n. a difficult task or problem

undergraduate degree – n. a degree that is given to a student by a college or university usually after four years of study

master’s degree – n. a degree that is given to a student by a college or university usually after one or two years of additional study following an undergraduate degree

applied – v. asked formally for something such as a job, admission to a school or a loan, usually in writing

scholarship – n. an amount of money that is given by a school or an organization, to a student to help pay for the student's education

endowment – n. a large amount of money that has been given to a school or hospital, and that is used to pay for its creation and continuing support

accounting – n. the skill, system, or job of keeping the financial records of a business or person

academic – adj. of or relating to schools and education

jealous – adj. feeling or showing an unhappy or angry desire to have what someone else has

intramural – adj. in which the students of one school compete against each other instead of competing against other schools

transform(ed) – v. to change something completely and usually in a good way