With an eye on targeting aspiring American Sign Language interpreters, the Mid-America Regional Interpreter Education Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock recently selected Lone Star College-North Harris ASL interpreting students, Jennifer Blumberg and Jennifer Faery, to attend the Collaboration for the Advancement of Teaching Interpreter Excellence (CATIE) Summer Immersion Program in St. Paul, Minnesota. Only two students from each state were chosen to attend the week-long program. The CATIE Center, located on the College of St. Catherine campus, is one of six centers within the partnership of the National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers.
Blumberg, an Interpreting Level 1 student, and Faery, an Interpreting Level 3 student, will be participating in a variety of classroom and real-world activities designed to build practical conversational ASL skills. They will attend seminars on linguistics, classifiers, and medical vocabulary. Then work with deaf mentors to apply the skills and knowledge from the seminars to real-life, fun and educational settings.
Both Blumberg and Faery are part of interpreter training technology program at LSC-North Harris, which prepares interpreters for certification, specialization and rewarding careers. Demand for interpreters in technical areas, such as medicine and law, currently exceeds the number of available professionals.
Charles Trevino, LSC-North Harris program director, said students can earn the ASL Communications Skills Certificate as well as an associate degree in interpreting/transliterating in English and American Sign Language.
"We have over a 90 percent placement rate for our associate degree graduates," says Trevino.
For more information about the interpreter training technology program, call 281.618.5535.
Lone Star College-North Harris is located at 2700 W.W. Thorne Drive, one-half mile south of FM 1960 E, between Aldine-Westfield and Hardy Roads. For more information about the college, call 281.618.5400 or visit: NorthHarris.LoneStar.edu.
Lone Star College System consists of five colleges, including CyFair, Kingwood, Montgomery, North Harris, and Tomball, six centers and Lone Star College-University Center. It is the largest college system in the Houston area, and third largest community college district in Texas. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.
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