TLC presented a webinar on Oct. 22 for interpreters, especially medical interpreters, about interpreting for end-of-life conversations. With palliative and hospice care becoming more common, interpreters are often present for these conversations, and the workshop focused on how to handle them.
“The subject was very interesting, and it does not get covered a lot,” said one attendee. “This was one of the best webinars I ever attended.”
TLC has taken a leadership role in the newly launched Cultural Ambassadors for Disaster Communication (CADC) program. Together with the Nashville Mayor’s Office and Office of Emergency Management (OEM), TLC is co-leading the program that aims to improve communications during disasters with the immigrant and limited English proficiency communities with the ultimate goal of saving lives.
During previous disaster in the Nashville area like flooding and tornadoes, it was often hard to reach these communities before, during, and after with emergency information. The goal of the CADC is to have “ambassadors” within those communities that are already in trusted or leadership positions. OEM and TLC will provide special training to these ambassadors. The program launched this Fall and will continue the ambassador training through the rest of 2022 and into 2023. TLC Training Specialist Richard Ponce de Leon is representing TLC in the program.
TLC welcomes Genna Linton and Aimee Dunphy as Interpretation & Translation project managers. Genna will focus on interpretation while Aimee focuses on translation.
Genna is a certified medical interpreter and most recently served as the bilingual front desk receptionist at Liberty Collegiate Academy in Nashville. She has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and geography from the University of Georgia.
Most recently, Aimee was a test administrator for Pearson Professional Centers in Brentwood. She has a bachelor’s degree in Japanese from Ball State University in Indiana.
TLC is proud of the Spanish for Educators program created by the World Languages team for receiving the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Public Service Vice Presidential Citation. This award recognizes a special effort by staff members who go above and beyond normal job assignments or have worked relentlessly on a complex project. Congratulations to Brian Barnett, Jack Willey, Maya Campbell, and Stasie Harrington for their work on creating this course.
Spanish for Educators was created for K-12 teachers, school staff, and administrators with very little to no previous Spanish study to develop cultural understanding and a basic repertoire of conversation skills to engage with Spanish speakers in their schools and local communities. It is offered four times a year. Contact worldlanguages@tennessee.edu for more information.
Congratulations to the graduates of our Summer Class of Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL)! Each student completed 150 course hours in this online program. This is the 61st TESL class that has graduated at TLC. Great job!
Fall Enrollment is here!
Register before Sept. 26 for our Early Bird 10% discount (use code EARLYFA22 at checkout).
Find out what our current students already know – our classes are awesome! We hope you will join us.
Amanda Shappard is the new fiscal director for the Tennessee Language Center. She was previously an accountant for Williamson County government for 8 years. Amanda has a bachelor’s in accounting from Tennessee Tech and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in public administration from Murray State University. She’s earned the Certified County Finance Officer and the Certified Public Administrator designations from the County Technical Assistance Service, an agency of the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Public Service.
The Tennessee Language Center translated notices and informational documents about Monkey Pox into Spanish for the TN Department of Health. The information will be used by health departments across Tennessee.
You can read the Spring 2022 edition of Brighter Tennessee, UT’s Institute for Public Service magazine. It features a story about TLC’s work with Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope to train new recruits with limited English proficiency.