VOA慢速英语2019 成功案例：从清洁到领导

（单词翻译）

A Success Story: From Cleaner to Leader

Reyes Guana, a son of Mexican immigrants, proves the saying: "Where there's a will, there's a way." In other words, if you want something badly enough, and work hard enough, you can make it happen.

墨西哥移民之子雷耶斯·瓜纳（Reyes Guana）证明了这句话：“有志者事竟成。”换句话说，如果您想要一件非常迫切的事情，并且足够努力地工作，则可以实现它。

In Guana's case, he went from cleaning classrooms to leading a California school system – that is, from being a custodian¹ to superintendent². In the middle, he earned a high-level university education and achieved a doctorate³.

Now he is in his first year leading the Byron Union School District in rural northern California.

How did Guana do it?

在瓜纳（Guana）的案例中，他从打扫教室到领导加利福尼亚的学校系统–从保管者到管理者。在中间，他获得了高级大学教育并获得了博士学位。

现在，他在第一年领导加利福尼亚北部乡村的拜伦联合学区。

瓜纳是如何做到的？

"Divine⁴ intervention⁵ at every level. I always remember when I wanted to give up, someone would put their hand on my shoulder and say, ‘Look kid, you have potential. Don't give up.'"

"Divine intervention" means that Guana believes that God – or someone God directed – helped him stay focused on his goals. One was the custodian at his school when he was a boy. He called her "Nike" because she wore Nike shoes. Guana wanted those kinds of shoes, too, but his parents could not afford them.

“神的干预在各个层面上。我一直记得我想放弃的时候，有人会把手放在我的肩膀上说：'看孩子，你有潜力。不要放弃。'”

“神圣干预”意味着瓜纳认为上帝（或上帝指示的某人）帮助他专注于自己的目标。小时候是他学校的监护人。他称她为“ Nike”，因为她穿着耐克鞋。瓜纳（Guana）也想要这种鞋子，但他的父母买不起。

Young Gauna liked how Nike made everything so clean. He told her he wanted to be a custodian, too.

"She goes, well it's good if you want to be a custodian, but make sure that you go to college and make this as one of your steps there."

年轻的高娜喜欢耐克如何使一切变得如此干净。他告诉她，他也想成为监护人。

“她走了，如果你想成为一名托管人，那就很好了，但是要确保你去上大学，并将其作为迈向那里的第一步。”

Guana also looked up to the principal, the leader at his school. He was a tall, friendly and good-looking man who wore nice clothes. He told Guana about his job helping⁶ students and teachers.

"I said, ‘Wow, when I grow up I want to do what you're doing.'

瓜纳（Guana）也仰望校长，学校的校长。他是个高大，友善，长相好的人，穿着漂亮的衣服。他告诉瓜纳他的工作是帮助学生和老师。

“我说，‘哇，我长大后想做你正在做的事情。’

And he says, ‘Well if you don't give up you'll get there.'"

Guana did get there, and two men remain friends. His former principal is now almost 90 years old.

他说，‘好吧，如果你不放弃，你会到达那里的。’”

瓜纳确实到达了那里，还有两个人仍然是朋友。他的前校长现在已经快90岁了。

A long road

But before Guana became a school principal, he followed in Nike's footsteps and become a custodian. He worked for three schools in Lodi, California. His work cleaning the schools earned the money he needed to pay for the first two years of college.

Then he worked as a campus safety officer, teacher, counselor⁷, administrator⁸, and now superintendent.

但是在瓜纳（Guana）成为学校校长之前，他跟随耐克（Nike）的脚步成为了保管人。他曾在加利福尼亚洛迪的三所学校工作。他打扫学校的工作赚了他上大学头两年所需的钱。

然后，他担任校园安全官，老师，顾问，行政人员，现在是总监。

It was a long distance to travel for a boy who grew up without much money and seven brothers and sisters. Guana says he was a "very shy" child who was "very quiet" in school. He did not like wearing used clothes and inexpensive shoes. But his parents struggled to pay for basic expenses. They always had two jobs to make ends meet. On the weekends, the whole family went to the fields to work. When the children were young they stayed in the car. As they got bigger, they worked too.

对于一个没有很多钱长大的男孩和七个兄弟姐妹来说，这是一段很长的路要走。瓜纳说他是一个“非常害羞”的孩子，在学校里“非常安静”。他不喜欢穿旧衣服和廉价鞋。但是他的父母努力支付基本费用。他们总是有两个工作来维持生计。在周末，全家人去田野上班。孩子们小时候，他们呆在车里。随着他们变得更大，他们也开始工作。

Guana says his parents wanted their children, who were born in the U.S., to give back to their country. They also wanted their children to stay in school. His mother ended her education when she was around eight and his father thirteen.

Now, Guana tells his own three children how important an education is for their lives.

瓜纳说，他的父母希望自己的孩子在美国出生，以回国。他们还希望自己的孩子继续上学。他母亲八岁左右，父亲十三岁时结束了学业。

现在，瓜纳告诉自己的三个孩子，教育对他们的生活有多重要。

He never forgets where he came from, or how he felt

The superintendent says that even though he has had a successful career, he never forgets where he came from, or how he felt. He uses his life experiences to guide him as a leader.

For example, Guana's younger sister needs a wheelchair to get around. To this day, her disability helps him as a school administrator. "You know I learned about advocacy for special ed. children as a sibling⁹ because my sister was born after me. And I remember crying all the time because people would make fun of her."

院长说，即使他有一个成功的职业生涯，他也永远不会忘记他来自何方或感觉如何。他利用自己的生活经验来指导自己作为领导者。

例如，瓜纳的妹妹需要轮椅才能出行。迄今为止，她的残疾帮助他成为学校管理员。 “你知道我从小就爱护特殊教育的孩子，因为我姐姐是我的后生。而且我记得一直哭，因为人们会取笑她。”

From a young age, Guana was a translator for his parents, whose native language was Spanish. Helping them made Guana understand the need for adults to learn English. And so, for many years Gauna taught English classes for adults in the community.

In addition, as a child he suffered from bullying—other students were unkind to him. This experience makes him watch out for the quiet children.

瓜纳从很小的时候就是他父母的翻译，他的母语是西班牙语。帮助他们使瓜纳瓜了解成年人学习英语的需求。因此，多年来，高娜（Gauna）为社区中的成年人教授英语课。

此外，小时候他遭受欺凌之苦，其他学生对他不友好。这种经历使他提防那些安静的孩子。

And being a cleaner at a school made him think about how to show respect for everyone in an organization.

"When I was a custodian you were like a ghost. No one really saw you. Yeah, the principals talked to you, and they said hi to you, but nobody else cared about you."

在学校里做一名清洁工使他开始思考如何表现出对组织中每个人的尊重。

“当我是保管人时，你就像个鬼。没有人真正看到你。是的，校长跟你说话，他们对你打招呼，但是没人关心你。”

In Guana's school system today, everyone is invited to parties and events. Everyone is important -- from the people who clean the floors, drive the buses, teach the students, lead the schools, and direct the entire operation.

在今天的瓜纳的学校系统中，每个人都被邀请参加聚会和活动。每个人都很重要-清洁地板，驾驶公共汽车，教学生，带领学校并指导整个操作的人员。

Words in This Story：

custodian – n.a person who cleans and takes care of a building

superintendent – n.a person who directs or manages a place, department, organization, etc.

doctorate – n.the highest degree that is given by a university

potential – adj.capable of becoming real

counselor – n.a person who provides advice as a job : a person who counsels¹⁰ people

advocacy – n.the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal : the act or process of advocating something

translator – n.a person who changes words written in one language into a different language

ghost – n.the soul of a dead person thought of as living in an unseen world or as appearing to living people