3520地區2007-2008年度學年度文化大使獎學生陳珮馨Betty (Pei-hsin Chen)譯
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在乘船越過巴西的亞馬遜河之際,凱沙•波登(Chesa Boudin)和朋友的女兒及她的兩位朋友共度了一段特別的時光。照片由凱沙•波登提供。
While traveling on a boat on Brazil's Amazon River, Chesa Boudin enjoys a special moment with a friend's daughter and her two chums. Photo courtesy of Chesa Boudin
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凱沙•波登28歲,過著豐富、冒險的生活。他曾赴拉丁美洲登山、到亞洲漫遊、榮獲羅德獎學金、在委內瑞拉總統雨果•查維茲(Hugo Ch�償ez)的對外關係辦公室當過義工,還寫了一本書;美國佬:在拉丁美洲的成年禮。
At 28, Chesa Boudin has lived a rich and adventurous life. He’s hitchhiked through Latin America, trekked across Asia, landed a Rhodes Scholarship, worked unpaid in the foreign relations office of Venezuelan President Hugo Ch�償ez, and authored Gringo: A Coming-of-Age in Latin America.
波登現在是耶魯法學院的學生,他的童年留下了悲劇和恩典的印記。他的父母,大衛•吉伯特(David Gilbert)和凱西•波登(Kathy Boudin)是「地下氣象」(Weather Underground)這個激進組織的成員。1981年,在波登14個月大時,他的父母試圖搶劫一部布林克保全卡車,有兩名員警和一名保全人員死於這場意外。在他的父母入獄時,比爾•艾爾斯(Bill Ayers)和貝娜汀•多恩(Bernardine Dohrn)介入領養他。他們住在芝加哥的海德公園附近,就在芝加哥大學校園外圍,波登就讀於該大學的實驗學校。
Now a student at Yale Law School, his childhood was marked by tragedy and privilege. His parents, David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, were members of the radical group the Weather Underground. In 1981, when Boudin was 14 months old, his parents attempted to rob a Brinks truck, and two police officers and a security guard died during the incident. When his parents went to prison, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn stepped in and raised him. They lived in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, the enclave around the University of Chicago campus, where Boudin attended a university lab school.
許多年來,波登因為父母的行為而承受許多壓力,他的成就也常和他非比尋常的童年形成對比。但不論究竟是什麼燃起他的企圖心,有一點很清楚:就是扶輪基金會大使獎學金帶他走向世界。
Over the years, Boudin has taken a lot of heat for his parents’ behavior. His accomplishments are often a counterpoint to his unconventional childhood. But whatever it is that fuels his ambitions, one thing is clear: It was a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship that launched him into the world.
「扶輪大大的塑造了我未來的生活,」他說。「獎學金讓我接觸了世界的一大部分,這是我從未體驗過的。我變得能說流利的西班牙文,服務這塊也讓我有機會參與人們的生活,這點我非常感激。」
“Rotary profoundly shaped the future of my life,” he says. “The scholarship exposed me to a huge part of the world that I hadn’t experienced. I became fluent in Spanish, and the service component gave me an appreciation for getting involved in people’s lives.”
波登在耶魯讀大一時,就知道自己大三時想要出國。在諮詢過學校的留學單位後,他決定扶輪獎學金計畫的彈性與慷慨捐助,能提供他最好的機會。
Boudin knew when he was a freshman at Yale that he wanted to spend his junior year abroad. After consulting with the university’s study abroad office, he decided the flexibility and generosity of the Ambassadorial Scholarships program offered the best opportunity.
「我把所有的雞蛋都放在同一個籃子裡,」他說。「扶輪非常慷慨,讓我能夠在國外待上一整年時間,因為扶輪遍布世界各地,所以我可以去任何地方。」
“I put all my eggs in one basket,” he says. “Rotary was generous enough to make a full year of immersion possible, and because Rotary is all over the world, I could go anywhere.”
扶輪大使獎學金受獎人大多都已完成大學學業,而藉機出國讀研究所,所以波登面對艱困的一戰。他搜尋位在芝加哥和紐哈芬(New Haven)的扶輪社,最後終於獲得康乃迪克州Woodbrige扶輪社贊助,該社是由Hamden與New Haven扶輪社輔導支持而成立。
Most Ambassadorial Scholarship recipients have already completed their undergraduate degree and use the opportunity to do graduate work abroad, so Boudin had an uphill battle. He researched Rotary clubs in Chicago and New Haven and eventually was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Woodbridge, Conn., after receiving guidance and support from the Rotary clubs of Hamden and New Haven.
「我本來就在紐哈芬讀書,所以可以找到願意接受我申請的扶輪社,」他回想。「他們叫我去面試,也進行得很順利。」
“I was in school in New Haven and was able to find a club that was open to my application,” he recalls. “They called me in for an interview, and it went really well.”
波登在上大學前曾短暫去過瓜地馬拉,他知道他想去拉丁美洲。他覺得去到擁有良好大學體系的國家很重要,因為他會在那待上一整個學年。最後,他決定去智利讀書。就在升上大二前,他得知自己獲得了獎學金,也打算大二時修習西班牙文與拉丁美洲史課程,來為旅程做好準備。
Having traveled a bit in Guatemala before heading off to college, Boudin knew he wanted to go somewhere in Latin America. He felt it was important to choose a country that was stable and had a good university system because he would spend an entire academic year there. In the end, he decided to study in Chile. He learned that he had won the scholarship right before his sophomore year, which he used to prepare for his trip by taking Spanish classes and courses on Latin American history.
他的決定充滿契機,因為南美洲的學年與美國恰好相反,波登可以在開學前花幾個月去旅行,準備好足夠的西班牙文能力,來瞭解語言細微之處與溝通。這趟旅程成為美國佬這本書的背景,該書在去年出版。他說:「倘若沒有扶輪,和因為他們的支持帶給我的體驗,就不會有我這本書。」
His decision was filled with opportunities. Because South America’s academic year is opposite to that of the United States, Boudin was able to spend a few months traveling before he started school, armed with enough Spanish to pick up subtleties and communicate. The trip became the background for Gringo, which was published last year. “My book wouldn’t have been possible without Rotary and the experiences I had because of their support,” he says.
他的西班牙文本來不夠流利,但是獎學金支付了他在聖地牙哥的融入課程。「語言學習的重要性,是扶輪的一大重點,也應該這麼做,」波登如是說。「他們稱之為大使獎學金,因為你要代表你家鄉的地區,而語言是過程中重要的一環。」
He wasn’t quite fluent in Spanish, but the scholarship paid for him to take immersion classes in Santiago. “The importance of language acquisition is something that Rotary puts a lot of emphasis on, and rightly so,” Boudin says. “They call it an Ambassadorial Scholarship because there is a sense that you’re going to represent your home district, and language is an important part of that process.”
恐怖份子在2001年9月11日攻擊紐約世貿大樓時,他人在智利,這大大豐富了他的經歷。波登的家人朋友都在紐約,而他在世界的另一端看著事件的發展。雖然他的智利朋友很關心他,他們卻不得不強調那一天對他們自己歷史的重要性-還有其中美國扮演的角色。在智利,911也是悲慘的一天。在1973年的同一天,奧古斯都•皮諾切特(Augusto Pinochet)將軍的軍隊推翻了民選總統薩爾瓦多•阿連德(Salvador Allende),開啟智利歷史的黑暗時期,也奪走數千條人命。
He was in Chile when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City on 11 September 2001, and it deeply colored his experience. With family and friends in New York, Boudin watched events unfold from the other side of the world. Although his Chilean friends were concerned for him, they also couldn’t help point out the significance the date played in their own history – and the U.S. role in it. In Chile, 11 September is also a tragic day. On that date in 1973, General Augusto Pinochet’s military overthrew democratically elected president Salvador Allende, which began a dark period in Chilean history that cost thousands of lives.
「我從沒受到惡意的針對,但這件事確實讓我正視美國對智利的干預。」他說,「我的朋友有人在9月11日受傷,或是喪失家人,但我在智利,也遇到有人的親戚在皮諾切特執政時受苦,使得他的政體確實是個慘痛的悲劇。」
“It was never directed at me in a hostile way, but it did force me to come to terms very early on with the impact of U.S. involvement in Chile,” he says. “I had friends who were injured or had family members who died on 11 September, but I also met people in Chile who had relatives who suffered under Pinochet, and it made the tragedy of his regime clear in a really stark way.”
波登返國後,他在新英格蘭各地的扶輪社分享經驗。他也申請並獲得了羅德獎學金。雖然許多人認為羅德獎學金是學業成就的頂峰,波登卻說,沒有扶輪,就不會有這一切發生。
When Boudin returned from his year abroad, he shared his experiences with Rotary clubs throughout New England. He also applied for – and received – a Rhodes Scholarship. Although many see the Rhodes as the pinnacle of academic achievement, Boudin says it couldn’t have happened without Rotary.
「大使獎學金是羅德獎學金必要基石,羅德獎學金較廣為人知,但在許多方面都卻比扶輪侷限,因為只能去牛津,」他說。
“The Ambassadorial Scholarship was a necessary building block for the Rhodes, which is better known but in many ways more limited than Rotary’s because it only sends you to Oxford,” he says.
幾年後,波登仍然與扶輪贊助者保持聯繫,也致力於扶輪。「扶輪社群對於我正在作的事情非常支持,也非常有興趣,他們認可我,我覺得他們也想知道我作了什麼。」
Years later, Boudin still keeps in touch with his Rotarian sponsors and remains committed to the organization. “The Rotary community has been very supportive and very interested in what I’m doing. They gave me their stamp of approval, and I think they want to see what I’ve done with it.”