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从无家可归到哈佛求学

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Any high school students lucky enough to be accepted to Harvard University can easily count themselves among the country’s best and brightest.

The story of David Boone’s journey from sleeping on a park bench to one of Harvard’s dorm rooms, certainly stands out from the crowd of his peers, however.

David, a 17-year-old senior at a high school in Cleveland, Ohio, was offered a full scholarship to Harvard in the fall of 2012.

His family life has been complicated for the past few years after gangs and economic hardships resulted in him being separated from his family and forced to fend for himself on the streets and park benches in Cleveland.

“When I was 14 years old, my family and I lost our home due to gang violence. I refused to join the gang, so they retaliated, leaving bullet holes in our house and our family,” he wrote as part of a blog series for The Huffington Post.

His siblings split up to stay with various family friends, but because of space issues and his allergies to the families’ pets, David was unable to stay. Because both his grandmother and mother could not afford to house the teenager, and he ended up homeless and hopping from benches in public parks, which presented their own obvious obstacles. He ended up in the safer neighborhood of Coventry because it was “a safer park with less danger”.

“All of these life lessons have shaped me into who I am, transforming my dreams and aspirations and allowing me to free myself from what was becoming an unproductive environment,” he wrote in his blog post.

A short while later, Jeff McClellan, the principal of the school, was immediately impressed by David’s dedication in the face of adversity, as well as his academic prowess. Mr. McClellan and his wife took the teen in and helped him while he looked for a more permanent solution.

“Here’s a kid who’s doing everything in his power to get where he wants to go and we had the available resources to provide a little additional support,” Mr. McClellan told the local ABC News affiliate. “I wish I could do that for everyone, but this was a unique case. Probably it won’t be the last time, but we’re just really proud of David.”

When it came to his next step, David aimed high and applied to a host of top-tier colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Princeton, Cornell, Yale, and Harvard.

In the end, only MIT rejected his application and he was left to choose his own fate from prestigious Ivy League schools.

有幸被哈佛大学录取的任何高中生都会自认是全国最棒和最聪明的人。

然而大卫・布恩从睡在公园长椅到睡在哈佛大学宿舍的这段经历,使他在同龄人中显得尤为突出。

大卫是美国俄亥俄州克利夫兰市一所高中的17岁毕业生,在2012年秋季得到了哈佛大学的全额奖学金。

过去这些年,他的家庭生活相当复杂。由于家庭经济困难及黑帮威胁,他被迫与家人分离,栖身于克利夫兰市的街道和公园的长椅上。

“我14岁时,我的家人和我因为黑帮暴力而无家可归。我不想加入黑帮,他们就进行报复,用枪把我家的房子打得千疮百孔。”他在《赫芬顿邮报》网站上的一系列博客文章中写道。

他的兄弟姐妹分开后,各自与亲友一起生活。由于空间问题,而且他对家养宠物过敏,大卫没能继续在亲友那儿住下去。因为他的奶奶和妈妈都不能为他提供住所,于是他最终无家可归,开始游荡于各个公园,睡在长椅上,而这些地方都明显各有各的不便。最终他在较为安全的考文垂附近安顿下来,因为这个公园“危险较少,较为安全”。

“所有这些生活的教训都将我塑造成现在的我,梦想和愿望随之改变,让我从无所事事的环境中解放出来。”他在博客中写道。

不久后,高中校长杰夫・麦克莱伦很快就被大卫在逆境中百折不挠的精神和他的学术造诣所折服。在大卫寻找更为稳定的居所时,麦克莱伦先生和他的妻子收留了大卫,并帮助他。

“这个孩子会竭尽所能去到达他想去的地方。我们手头正好有资源能为他提供一点额外的帮助。”麦克莱伦先生告诉美国广播公司新闻网在当地的报道站,“我希望我能给每个人都提供帮助,但是大卫是个特例。或许这不是最后一次,但是我们真的为大卫感到骄傲。”

当说到他的下一步打算时,大卫目标远大,他申请了许多顶级学校,诸如宾夕法尼亚大学、麻省理工学院、普林斯顿大学、康奈尔大学、耶鲁大学和哈佛大学。

最终,只有麻省理工学院拒绝了他的申请,而他可以在众多有名望的常春藤联合会的大学中作出一个关乎自己命运的选择。