PBS高端访谈:需要大学奖学金? 有一个app可以帮你!

 JUDY WOODRUFF: It's hard to overstate just how expensive college can be, more than $40,000 a year for a private school, over $34,000 for an out-of-state public school.

Many students do qualify for greater financial aid, but a start-up has come up with a way to let high school students earn money for college much earlier.

Economics correspondent Paul Solman has the story. It's part of his Making Sense series, which airs Thursdays on the "NewsHour."

PAUL SOLMAN: At the engineering classroom of a top public magnet school in Miami, Terra High School, Sebastian Rodriguez and his team's entry in a national robot competition.

SEBASTIAN RODRIGUEZ, Student: You have to pick up a lot of Wiffle balls and stack them into this canister here and then be able to propel them upwards¹ into 6-foot-tall tubes.

PAUL SOLMAN: Turns out this whole school is as competitive as the robotniks. You need high grades and test scores just to get in.

You don't get any extra money for having built a really cool robot, do you?

SEBASTIAN RODRIGUEZ: No, not at all. Just the fun of having to build a robot.

PAUL SOLMAN: And why ask about money? Because, here, kids get paid for achievements through a college scholarship app called Raise.me.

Senior Barbara Groh:

BARBARA GROH, Student: They call them micro-scholarships, and it's all based on your portfolio², your profile.

PAUL SOLMAN: Right.

BARBARA GROH: So, for different aspects of my profile, I can get different amounts of money from different schools. So these are all my AP classes.

PAUL SOLMAN: Are these your grades?

BARBARA GROH: Yes. For getting an A, you can get $25 to $1,000, depending on the school.

PAUL SOLMAN: More than 140 colleges and universities already, from Florida state to Oberlin, Penn State to Notre Dame³, using their own formulas to offer money in the form of an eventual⁴ merit scholarship for high school achievements, starting in ninth grade and guaranteed, though only if the student applies and is actually admitted.

Raise.me, a private company funded by venture capital and several foundations, charges the schools annual fees to participate. The scholarship money is provided by the schools themselves.

Take an honors or an advanced course.

需要大学奖学金? 有一个app可以帮你!

BARBARA GROH: Participating in an extracurricular activity, taking the PSATs, SATs, and also for getting good scores, you can get even more money.

PAUL SOLMAN: More money for immediate⁵ achievements, says Raise.me's founder⁶ Preston Silverman.

PRESTON SILVERMAN, CEO & Co-Founder, Raise.me: Instead of waiting for four years to find out if you're going to receive any scholarship, students are getting a short feedback loop each semester, each grade they get.

ANEESH RAMAN, Raise.me: It's a huge pool of money that colleges are giving out to kids after they have applied⁷, after they have gotten in, now goes to kids starting as early as ninth grade.

PAUL SOLMAN: Yes, it only goes to them as a promise, contingent⁸ on acceptance, says Raise.me vice⁹ president Aneesh Ramen, but no matter where they go:

ANEESH RAMAN: It motivates them to do better in high school and it prepares them better for college, so, when they go, they actually finish, get a diploma, find a job, live the American dream. That's the idea.

PAUL SOLMAN: Senior Sabrina Rosell is one of Terra's typically high achievers. But, like almost all the students here, 40 percent of whom qualify for federal school lunch aid, Rosell needs help to attend the college of her choice, nearby Florida International. It's relatively¹⁰ inexpensive, but, then, she has four siblings¹¹.

SABRINA ROSELL, Senior, Terra High School: It may look like my family doesn't qualify for financial aid, but it doesn't mean that I can just dish out the $6,000 for tuition every single year.

PAUL SOLMAN: The $8,000 she's earned on Raise.me thus far represents a fair chunk¹² of that tuition.

SABRINA ROSELL: It's just like — almost like a gift in exchange for all of our hard work.

PAUL SOLMAN: Rosell's fellow students agree.

JUSTIN LEE, Senior, Terra High School: I finally found out something that I can get from working hard, besides just the good feeling from working hard, you know?

PAUL SOLMAN: But if the students at Terra don't need the motivational nudge of financial incentives¹⁴, even if most need the money, students elsewhere seriously need both, says Raise.me founder Silverman.

PRESTON SILVERMAN: We spend almost all of our time reaching out to schools and school districts that are serving lower-income populations and schools that serve a large percentage of first-generation college students. Those are the students that we're most passionate¹⁵ about supporting.

WOMAN: How many of you want to go to college?

PAUL SOLMAN: OK, so, next morning, we joined a Raise.me reach-out rally at a distinctly non-magnet school, Carol City High.

MAN: OK. Let's take some guesses on how you much you can earn for different things on Raise. Everyone who answers right, we will give you a prize.

How much do you guys think you can get for getting an A or a B in class?

PAUL SOLMAN: Carol City is just a few miles away from Terra, but in terms of academic motivation, a world apart. So will financial incentives work here?

ELONDRA JACKSON, Sophomore¹⁶, Carol City High School: Yes, I do think people will try harder if they knew, like, the benefits of getting money to go to college and be successful in life.

PAUL SOLMAN: Christina Derby, Carol City high's valedictorian, doesn't need the extra incentive¹³. But she too thinks Raise.me will instill and reinforce good habits.

CHRISTINA DERBY, Senior, Carol City High School: I think, as the money accumulates over time, then kids will be like I shouldn't fall down and get behind in my work. I should actually work harder and do more things, because, in the end, it will pay off.'

PAUL SOLMAN: But Kristin Klopfenstein, who studies the economics of education, worries that, for many kids, Raise.me will simply fall flat.

KRISTIN KLOPFENSTEIN, University of Northern Colorado: A lot of times, kids, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, don't understand the path from here to there. And so just saying, oh, we will reward you if you pass this test, the kids might get all excited about the incentive, but then they have no idea about how to go about actually achieving that goal.

PAUL SOLMAN: Especially with so many other distractions¹⁷.

WOMAN: Another instance of violence hitting too close to a Miami-Dade school.

PAUL SOLMAN: Just hours after we left Carol City, there was a drive-by shooting out front.

STUDENT: A bunch of kids just started running, because I heard like a shot, like pop, pop, pop. Security, everybody took — getting inside.

KRISTIN KLOPFENSTEIN: I think those kids face an entirely¹⁸ different situation, where, when you're in an advantaged background, from an advantaged background, your time horizon can be much longer. You can be looking forward and planning for two, four years down the road: This is the college I want to go to, this is what I want to be when I grow up.

If you talk to kids who are in neighborhoods and schools like you're talking about, what do you want to be when you grow up, sometimes the kids will scratch their heads, and, you know, I don't think that far away. I may not grow up.

PAUL SOLMAN: But Klopfenstein does have an alternative.

KRISTIN KLOPFENSTEIN: Rewards for intermediate actions that lead to positive outcomes. So, for reading books or doing positive study skills and behaviors that will lead to higher grades, I will give you $2 for every book you read. That has a tremendous impact on reading comprehension.

PAUL SOLMAN: At nearby Florida International, however, an urban public university with 55,000 students, 60 percent of them Hispanic, director of admissions Jody Glassman says Raise.me had already had a positive impact. It has raised hopes for those who might not have otherwise applied.

JODY GLASSMAN, Florida International University: There's been so much hype. Is the price of a college education worth it? Are you going to be gainfully employed when you graduate? Are you going to graduate with all of this debt? And Raise.me really helps us portray¹⁹ to students that college is affordable²⁰.

PAUL SOLMAN: And even to the high-achieving students at the magnet school, it turns out, Raise.me has had real value. It's ratcheted up even further the drive that already spurs them.

JUSTIN LEE: We're just always competing with each other. So if one of them said, hey, I have $80,000 to this school on Raise.me, the other one will say, well, I have $82,000, and we will just keep going at it and trying to see what we can add to it.

PAUL SOLMAN: For the "PBS NewsHour," economics correspondent Paul Solman, reporting from Miami.

1 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

2 portfolio   

n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位

参考例句：

• He remembered her because she was carrying a large portfolio.他因为她带着一个大公文包而记住了她。
• He resigned his portfolio.他辞去了大臣职务。

3 dame   

n.女士

参考例句：

• The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
• If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会，你就要跟那个夫人结婚。

4 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

5 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

6 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。

7 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。

8 contingent   

adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队

参考例句：

• The contingent marched in the direction of the Western Hills.队伍朝西山的方向前进。
• Whether or not we arrive on time is contingent on the weather.我们是否按时到达要视天气情况而定。

9 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。

10 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

11 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

12 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

13 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

14 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

15 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

16 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

17 distractions   

n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 )；娱乐，消遣；心烦意乱；精神错乱

参考例句：

• I find it hard to work at home because there are too many distractions. 我发觉在家里工作很难，因为使人分心的事太多。
• There are too many distractions here to work properly. 这里叫人分心的事太多，使人无法好好工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

19 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

20 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。