It Takes A Village … Taking a Closer Look at Interpreter Education and Community Capacity

Interpreting is a profession born of the community. As interpreter education programs have moved to academia and the academic bar continues to raise, the challenge facing programs and faculty is in finding “the zone” – that sweet spot that balances academia and the real-life learning that can only happen through community involvement. Interpreting students will often take the knowledge they learn into the community via observations, volunteer work, service learning, internships and other activities. Members of the Deaf Community are a vital, necessary part of this mix. Programs must have internship sites that have experienced strong interpreter supervisors to oversee student work.  Community involvement and resources are necessary for program and student success. At the same time, more and more community members and internship sites are saying “thanks, but no thanks.” “We’d love to help, but we can’t this time.” “We are already working with students from other programs, we can’t do more.” “How does this (hosting an intern/volunteering for the program) benefit me?”  This webinar will begin to explore the idea of community capacity with program directors from interpreter education programs across the country.