Jeff Pollock & Christine Mitchell Address Critical Need for Interpreters

Jeff Pollock, with significant support from and coordination by staff interpreter Christine Mitchell, recently completed an innovative project funded by our very own RSCA grant to address a critical need on the CSU Northridge campus, and in the Greater Los Angeles community, for more qualified American Sign Language/English (ASL/E) interpreters.

This project successfully piloted an apprenticeship that can shorten the gap between graduation and professional certification of ASL/E interpreters. Through a successful semester of intensive work with Deaf ASL language mentors and highly qualified and experienced interpreting mentors, each participant has successfully made strides toward certification and has secured employment.  It is hoped that the project can be replicated on a larger scale in the future.

Finally, an additional bonus to the project is increased relationship between Deaf Studies and the national testing agency (the Center for the Assessment of Sign Language Interpreters, CASLI), the national interpreting professional organization (the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, RID) and the national ASL educators agency (the American Sign Language Teachers Association).

Congratulations Jeff and Christine!