Читать книгу Accepted!. Secrets to Gaining Admission to the World's Top Universities онлайн

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My mother, Ruth, was an intelligent woman and she may well have had a good education in Austria had her life not been so brutally altered by World War II. Instead, she arrived in England speaking almost no English and with no way to further her formal education. In time, she married an Englishman and moved to New Zealand. I was the youngest of their three children. When my father died—I was at primary school—my mother once again set about rebuilding her life. And once again as an immigrant.

My mother instilled in me the need for a good education. Having herself lost the security she had depended on, first as a teenager, and then as a young wife and mother, she understood its value. This is a common thread in the story of many refugees and immigrants. A person and a family can lose almost everything—their home, their job, their friends, their citizenship—but they still retain their character, their education, and their skills. It's these that have allowed many people to start new lives.