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一个美国女孩的风雨哈佛路

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唐·洛金斯(Dawn Loggins)是一个来自美国的18岁女孩,与同龄人相比,她的成长之路充满了坎坷。她曾经被吸毒的父母抛弃,一度无家可归,不得不半工半读来完成中学的学业……但她从不怨天尤人,而是把困难化作前进的动力。如今她终于迎来了人生的曙光,如愿以偿地拿到了哈佛大学的录取通知书。让我们一起来了解这个励志女孩辉煌背后的故事吧!

It's before sunrise, and the janitor1) at Burns High School has already been down the length of a hallway, cleaning and sweeping classrooms before the day begins.

This particular janitor's name is Dawn Loggins, a straight—A senior at the very school she cleans.

With her long, straight dark blonde hair and black—rimmed glasses, Dawn looks a bit like Avril Lavigne2). But her life is a far cry from3) that of the pop star.

太阳还没升起来,伯恩斯高中的保洁员就已经沿着长长的走廊,在一天开始之前清扫每间教室了。

这位特别的保洁员名叫唐·洛金斯,她就就读于她所打扫的这所学校,是一名各方面都非常优秀的毕业班学生。

唐有着一头长长的深金色直发,戴着一副黑框眼镜,看起来有点像艾薇儿·拉维尼。但是她的生活却与那位流行歌星有着天壤之别。

Growing up in adversity

Dawn grew up in a ramshackle4) home with no electricity and no running water. She often went days, even weeks without showering. She and her brother Shane—who was equally studious5) in his schoolwork—would walk 20 minutes to a public park to fetch water.

"We would get water jugs and fill them up at the park, using the spigots6) in the bathroom. And we would use that to flush7) the toilet or cook with. Stuff like that," the 18—year—old says.

Dawn had trouble doing homework at nighttime because her home had no electricity. "I remember doing my homework by candlelight because I am determined to succeed," she says. "A lot of people use bad situations as an excuse, and instead of doing that, I use them as motivation."

Abandoned by parents

Last summer, Dawn was invited to attend a prestigious8) six—week summer program, the Governor's School of North Carolina, to study natural science. The program is reserved9) for the state's top students.

Dawn saw her parents for 30 minutes during a short break in the middle of the summer program. They talked about her school and how she was doing. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

But as she prepared to leave the summer program, she kept calling her parents' phone, only to learn it had been disconnected10).

"When I returned, my grandmother had been dropped off at a local homeless shelter11), my brother had just left, and my parents had just gone," she says. "I found out later they had moved to Tennessee."

Her voice is steady, "I never expected my parents to just, like, leave."

Getting help from others

For a while, Dawn lived on the couch at friends' homes, while she figured out what to do. The only thing that was clear was that she wanted to graduate from Burns, where she was active in extracurricular12) activities and had a job.