VOA慢速英语2016--University Student Drops Out of Ivy League

AS IT IS 2016-06-05 University Student Drops Out of Ivy¹ League

A Columbia University student said she ran away in May because life at the highly ranked school was too stressful.

Nayla Kidd of Kentucky was an engineering student at Columbia, in New York City, when she disappeared. Her friends, family and police looked for her for two weeks.

She was found living across the East River in another part of the city.

Kidd explained that she moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn after turning away from university life.

“I skipped my final exams, changed bank accounts, got a second phone number and deleted my Facebook page,” she wrote in the New York Post newspaper. “I needed to break from my old life of high pressure and unreasonable² expectations.”

School success

Kidd said she received excellent grades at her preparatory school before Columbia. She said she was called “The Science Girl” because of her skills in the sciences.

“I enjoyed the praise and self-worth I felt when I excelled in school, and I wanted to keep aiming higher,” Kidd said, in telling her story in the New York Post.

She was excited when she got into Columbia “because it’s such a prestigious³ school.”

Columbia is part of a group of eight schools known as the Ivy League, a group that includes Harvard and Yale.

“It made me feel like I had proven to myself, and everyone around me, that I made it,” Kidd wrote.

The Washington Post newspaper noted⁴ that Kidd’s mother has academic degrees from two other prestigious U.S. schools -- Johns Hopkins University and MIT.

Kidd said of her mother: “It was just her and I; she raised me as a single mom.”

Leaving school

Even though she was eager to attend Columbia, Kidd did not feel welcome there. The school felt too big, too unfriendly and too impersonal⁵, she said.

“School just wasn’t interesting to me anymore because I didn’t have any close connections with my teachers,” she said.

At the end of her second year there, Kidd left the apartment she shared near the campus with two former Columbia students. She missed final exams. She did not return texts or phone calls.

Friends and family created the hashtag #FindingNayla. Finally, the police found her and reunited her with her mother.

School stress

Just one month before Kidd went missing, the Columbia University’s student newspaper wrote that many Columbia students have problems with stress. The newspaper is called the Columbia Spectator.

“Students have singled out stress as an issue at Columbia with increasing frequency,” The Spectator wrote. It said the repeated complaint has led many students to ask whether Columbia is a more stressful place than other top universities.

Noelle Leonard is the senior research scientist at New York University’s College of Nursing. She said colleges like Columbia offer lots of resources for students, but they expect students to seek the help themselves.

“It seems as if Nayla did not have an advisor⁶ or counselor⁷ that she could turn to,” Leonard said.

Some colleges ask teachers and advisers⁸ to tell administrators⁹ if a student might be having problems.

For example, at Georgia State University in Atlanta, professors are told to report when a student misses a few classes, fails to turn in assignments, or fails tests.

The idea, said Vice¹⁰ Provost Timothy Renick, is to offer help before problems grow and force students to leave school.

Leonard and fellow researcher Marya Gwatz wrote a paper together, offering some advice for students:

Seek relationships with faculty¹¹, family and fellow students.

If you feel you need mental-health care, seek it out. “Fight back against the stigma¹² of mental-health care,” they wrote.

Seek balance in your life between study, work and play. “Balance will get you farther in life than a really good test score,” they wrote.

Leonard said she thinks that African-American students are under more pressure to excel at mostly white, Ivy league universities, such as Columbia. Forbes.com reported that African-Americans make up 7.5 percent of Columbia students.

Reaction

Kidd’s story drew lots of comments on Twitter. Some supported her, some were critical and others offered mixed opinions.

“So glad to hear Nayla Kidd has been found and is safe. I can totally identify with wanting to just up and leave and be unreachable,” wrote one person on Twitter.

Another person wrote: “I understand #NaylaKidd wanting a new life, but it was selfish not to consider how her disappearance¹³ would affect her friends and family.”

Columbia University put out a statement saying officials are “deeply relieved and gratified that Columbia Engineering student Nayla Kidd has been found and is safe.”

Kidd herself said she is glad to be back in touch with her friends and family, but she does not plan to return to school. Instead of focusing on succeeding academically, she said, she wants to pursue her interest in the arts.

Words in This Story

stressful – adj. making someone feel worried or anxious

account – n. a record of money that has been paid and money that has been received

delete – v. to remove

preparatory school -- n. the level of school before college or university

prestigious – adj. a place known for success and high standards

academic -- adj. relating to education or study

gratification – n. providing satisfaction, pride and/or happiness

frequency – adv. happening often

stigma – n. a set of negative and often unfair beliefs about something

1 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。

2 unreasonable   

adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的

参考例句：

• I know that they made the most unreasonable demands on you.我知道他们对你提出了最不合理的要求。
• They spend an unreasonable amount of money on clothes.他们花在衣服上的钱太多了。

3 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。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 impersonal   

adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的

参考例句：

• Even his children found him strangely distant and impersonal.他的孩子们也认为他跟其他人很疏远，没有人情味。
• His manner seemed rather stiff and impersonal.他的态度似乎很生硬冷淡。

6 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

7 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

8 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

9 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

10 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

11 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

12 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

13 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。