America 1982

"Professor Gavin Rudd would like to speak with you and Miss Farrell as well as Dennis and Pam."

In the principal's room, after Principal Mendez heard Tommy Hawke's request not to accompany the team in subsequent summer camp activities, he did not refuse, but said something else.

As he spoke, he picked up a card from the table and handed it to Tommy who was about to leave.

Gavin Ladd is the professor at Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs who was interested in the summer camp.

"I guess he should help answer the only question in this summer camp that still puzzles me." Tommy took the phone number and smiled at the principal.

It was a card for the Four Seasons Hotel in Providence. According to the address on it, Tommy, Otilia, Dennis, and Pam drove there in Dennis' family's second-hand muscle car.

The question that puzzled them was why the professors at Princeton University knew about their summer camp and were willing to participate, free of charge.

They had all met Gavin Ladd, a young professor who was forty-two years old, white, and one of the youngest and most junior professors at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University when they were attending classes at Lincoln High School before. Tommy Hawke, Otilia and others were treated no differently or with any special treatment from other students.

According to Professor Ladd's appointment at the Four Seasons Hotel Cafe, when the four of them arrived, they saw that Gavin Ladd was already accompanying a man in his sixties, who had lost most of his hair, leaving only his temples and the back of his head. Several gray-haired black old men were waiting at the reserved booths. At this moment, they saw four people appearing at the door of the coffee shop. Gavin Ladd and the black old man, who had been paying attention, stood up from a distance.

Otilia looked at the black man and suddenly exclaimed in a low voice: "Oh My God!"

"Do you know him?" Seeing Otilia's reaction, Tommy asked.

Otilia whispered to Tommy: "If I remember correctly, my godfather took me to attend his lectures. He was..."

The old black man didn't give Otilia a chance to finish her words. He walked over with a vigorous step, stretched out his hand to Tommy Hawke with a smile on his face: "Tommy Hawke, hello."

"How do you do, sir?" Tommy shook hands with the other person and looked at Otilia and the smiling Gavin Ladd. Both of them seemed to know the identity of the old black man.

It wasn't until they looked at Dennis, Pam, and Tommy next to them who had the same reaction as themselves that they felt a little relieved. Finally, there were people who were as ignorant as themselves about the current situation.

The old black man's hands were very strong. He even held Tommy's hand with one hand and gently patted the back of Tommy's hand with the other hand. He pulled Tommy to sit next to him: "Let me introduce myself. My name is William Lewis. I am from Princeton." University Professor of Political Economy.”

Seeing that the three high school students didn’t show any shock at all, Professor Gavin Rudd next to him couldn’t help but add an introduction for the black man: “Sir William Lewis, Professor of Political Economics at Princeton, Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 1979 Prize winner, the first black professor at Princeton University and the first black scholar in the world to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, he is also my mentor and the reason why I am here at this summer camp.”

Gavin Ladd's addition made Tommy Hawke have a concrete expression of the word "shock" on his face. Although he had never heard of this old black man's name, he had heard of the Nobel Prize.

Even Dennis and Pam were a little shocked on the spot. Even uneducated students had heard of this world-renowned award.

"I had always wanted to finalize the schedule and teach a class for your summer camp, but the handover work for my retirement was really cumbersome. By the time I finished it, your first summer camp had already ended." William Lewis looked at him gently. He looked at Tommy and the other four who were sitting blankly, and spoke with a smile.

"Mr. Allen Lewis, the Governor of St. Vincent? Is he a relative of yours?" Tommy suddenly had a thought and asked.

The old black man smiled and nodded: "He is my biological brother."

"No wonder Prime Minister Madoff keeps saying that he is not the smartest person in St. Vincent, so you designed all of this from beginning to end?" Tommy slowly exhaled: "The Governor asked me to say hello to you on his behalf."

With this Nobel Prize winner's explanation, all the links become clear.

"No, not a design, just a coincidence. Madouf and my brother occasionally called me and asked me to help St. Vincent get the aid money that the United States should have delivered and to focus the United States on the problem of workers being squeezed in the sugar mills, but politics did not Care and sympathy, I am just an ordinary professor living in the United States and teaching at Princeton University. It is impossible for a non-American scholar living in the United States to change anything. My personal social status cannot increase the presence of my motherland in the world." William Lewis said Tommy said:

"At that time, the only high school in St. Vincent received a call from a high school in the United States to inquire about jointly organizing a summer camp. When my brother told me about this, he just regarded it as an ordinary game, but I think this may be an opportunity. At Princeton, we believe that students can promote social development and change faster than adults. Anyway, our country can’t get any worse, so we might as well let students give it a try.”

Tommy Hawke thought for a moment and then said: "You checked the information about Lincoln High School and the summer camp, and found that we are too bad and not worthy of the name of the Summer Summit. In order to attract the real elite high school students, we gave The opportunity for this summer camp to be associated with the Princeton name.”

"No, I'm just worried that Lincoln High School won't give you much support and your plan will fail, so I asked Gavin to make the call." William Lewis shook his head and corrected Tommy's statement: "I can't do anything for you. Ever since you came up with this idea for the college entrance examination, you are already out-and-out young elites in my eyes."

Dennis said simply: "Mr. Professor, so in order to thank us for everything we have done for your country, are you going to recommend us to enter Princeton University? It is best to have a full scholarship and waive all tuition and fees."

"I can't believe that I actually have the opportunity to go to Princeton." Pam also looked a little excited: "I wonder how difficult it is to crack the TV set at Princeton University compared to our high school?"

"No, in fact, I have retired from Princeton. St. Vincent is going to jointly establish a university with Barbados and St. Lucia. I am going to help that university complete the preliminary preparations." William Lewis laughed and extinguished the light. The fantasy of the two: "If you want to go to university, I can ask the new university to send you an admission letter, because I will be the first president."

Tommy breathed out: "No, thank you, we are not planning to study abroad for the time being."

"My brother said, you have to write letters of recommendation for Tommy, Dennis, Pam and other students to send them to Princeton University. They are the best kids in the United States and deserve to go to the best university in the United States. The people of this country owe them, and we must help them realize their wishes." William Lewis slowed down and said:

"But I don't think so. You are the best high school students, but the best university depends on you. Go to a university you like, instead of letting us old people help you define what a good university is. I will not write a recommendation letter for you, but I will sign your name before my name at the end of the last paper of my American teaching career, so that when the universities you apply to have doubts about this, When they call me to find out about the situation, I can tell them in a more sincere way about everything you have done for my thesis and my motherland. I can also tell that university that they are the best group of high school students in the eyes. The best college.”

Yesterday’s second update. I woke up late... so I’m going to write today’s update.