Gallaudet establishes fifth community college collaboration to benefit interpretation students

On May 19, 2016, Gallaudet University established a collaborative agreement with John A. Logan College (JALC), in Carterville, Ill., to allow students in the two-year Interpreter Preparation Program at JALC to transfer credits into Gallaudet’s four-year Bachelor of Arts in Interpretation program.

At Gallaudet, students live and study with deaf and hard of hearing people from the United States and abroad on the University’s bilingual campus. Gallaudet has similar agreements with Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C., Austin Community College in Austin, Texas, Front Range Community College in Westminster, Colo., and Ohlone College in Fremont, Calif.

Gallaudet and JALC held an articulation agreement signing ceremony on May 19 to commemorate the partnership.

“Our goal is for our students to improve interpreting services all over the nation, not just here in Washington, D.C.,” said Dr. Melanie Metzger, chair of the Gallaudet Department of Interpretation. “The interpreting field has changed so much. It used to be that interpreters were primarily from within the deaf community. In recent years, more formal teaching opportunities appeared, with new programs developing. Today, there may be more interpreters who went through a full four-year program than these who are from within the deaf community.”

“The influence of Gallaudet University extends far beyond Washington, D.C., as we are a nationally and internationally recognized beacon of hope that is producing influential research in a variety of fields, including sign language interpretation,” said President Roberta J. Cordano. “Our faculty and students come from all over the globe and when our students are finished with their studies, they go out into the world, ready to begin professional interpreting and ready to influence the world of sign language interpretation research.”

“We are very pleased to continue our partnership with Gallaudet University,” said Dr. Ron House, JALC president. “This partnership is a perfect match. Gallaudet is nationally respected for educating deaf and hard of hearing students, and John A. Logan College’s Interpreter Preparation Program has a long history and national reputation for preparing interpreters to serve the deaf and hard of hearing.”

Gallaudet is the only university in the world to offer interpretation programs from the bachelor’s level to the doctorate level within a sign language immersive environment. Gallaudet’s award-winning interactive interpretation laboratories prepare students for a high-demand career through hands-on training in a variety of medical, business, education, and government settings.

Graduates from Gallaudet’s interpretation degree programs work in a variety of settings for organizations, individuals, and government agencies. Alumni of the programs work in settings such as business, education, government, theatre, medicine, law, health care, and video relay.

The interpretation classes are optimized for ASL medium teaching and classrooms are equipped to serve the needs of the rapidly advancing field of interpretation. The department’s amenities include tools that allow for recording live and interactive interpreting role play, video conferencing for national and global collaboration among students and faculty, and private recording booths and central computer stations for individual and class activities.

The Center for the Advancement of Interpretation and Translation Research includes a library, filming rooms, and student research bays with video and statistical software.

“This collaboration has several different intentions; one of the main intentions are to help students graduate from John A. Logan College, with a smoother and faster transition. That’s the main goal. Gallaudet is an excellent place for students and interpreters to come together from different places all over and share different perspectives,” said Dr. Keith Cagle, coordinator of the Bachelor of Arts in Interpretation program. “After graduating and going back home, I hope to see these interpreters become leaders and help develop a network. They could possibly become leaders at their hometown, their state, their country, and even the world.”

“John A. Logan College has had the privilege of a Gallaudet University Regional Center (GURC) on our campus since 2010. In strengthening our partnership with Gallaudet through this agreement, we are now able to offer students an educational pathway that is streamlined, which has been proven to impact student success during the transfer process and beyond. This collaboration will impact the lives of our students, and the deaf and hard of hearing community, which is a win-win situation,” said

Dr. Laurel Klinkenberg, John A. Logan’s vice president of Instruction.

Written by Kaitlin Luna

Published on May 27, 2016