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TLC Participates in Panel on Language Access for Trauma Survivors

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Erika Burnett, Diversity, Inclusion, and Intercultural Communication Instructor, represented the Tennessee Language Center at the Metro Nashville Office of Family Safety remote and in-person panel about meaningful language access for trauma survivors. The panel addressed staff and partners of Nashville’s Family Safety  Center as well as Tennessee’s statewide family justice centers and their partners (victim advocates, legal aid, prosecutors, medical and mental health professionals, law enforcement, crisis response staff, etc.) Topics addressed included how to prepare a trauma survivor to work with interpreters as well as how to prepare interpreters to work with trauma survivors, what language access plans are and how to begin developing one, and cultural sensitivity.

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TLC Recognized with TNCPE Award

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TLC was recognized by the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence for achieving the Interest Recognition (Level 1) at the TNCPE annual conference March 23. The TLC Leadership Team completed the organizational profile using the Baldridge Excellence Framework. The Leadership Team is already working on the application process for the next level.

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22 Complete Court Interpreter Workshop

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22 people from 10 counties across Tennessee as well as New Mexico and South Carolina recently completed TLC’s “TN State Court Interpreter Ethics and Skills Building Workshop.” Languages represented included French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.

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Two TLC Teachers Nominated for Adult Educator of the Year

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Lorie Adams, one of TLC’s ESL teachers and TESL trainers, and Diane Thomas, one of TLC’s ESL teachers, were nominated for Adult Educator of the Year by Adult Literacy at the Nashville Public Library.

Lorie has taught Beginning to Advanced level ESL classes at TLC since 2014. She is also an instructor in TLC’s Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certification program. Diane has taught ESL at TLC since 2011.

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Cara to Cara Radio Program Features TLC

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Director of World Languages Brian Barnett was recently a guest of Cara to Cara radio program sponsored by the Hispanic Family Foundation (HFF).  For the Spring 2022 World Languages term, we are offering an in-person beginning Spanish class at HFF. Registration for Spring Term starts March 7 and classes begin the week of April 18.  TLC also offers English classes at HFF.

Watch the interview.

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Congratulations to our Newest TESL Graduates!

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TLC recently held graduation for its newest group of graduates from the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certification program. TLC’s teacher certification course (now presented online) offers 150 hours of instruction, far beyond the standard 100 hours, and includes a 30-hour, in-person teaching practicum.

Executive Director Janice Rodriguez told graduates, “What you are doing for English language learners can be life changing. As you know, being able to communicate effectively in English opens doors. It sets the speaker on the path for success, gives them the confidence to develop personally and professionally, and for those learning in the U.S., makes life here in the United States become more like home.”

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TLC Executive Director Participates in National Language Advocacy Day

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TLC Executive Director Janice Rodriguez participated as a member of the Tennessee delegation for the “Virtual Language Advocacy Days 2022: Language at the Intersection” held Feb. 2-4. The annual event is sponsored by the JNCL-NCLIS (Join National Committee for Languages and the National Council for Languages and International Studies).

Janice and the Tennessee delegation met with legislative representatives from the offices of Tennessee’s U.S. Senators Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, and U.S. Representatives Mark Green, Jim Cooper, and Tim Burchett, to discuss the most pressing issues facing language education policy. Of particular interest to TLC was JNCL-NCLIS’s support for the passage of the Senate version of the Advancing International and Foreign Language Education Act (HR 2940/S. 1453) and the authorization of the Biliteracy Educational Seal and Teaching (BEST) Act (S. 680/HR 1731).

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TLC Translating and Recording Parthenon Audio Tour in Spanish and Arabic

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The Parthenon in Centennial Park in Nashville is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens and a major tourist and cultural attraction for the city. Visitors can listen to an audio tour of the Parthenon, and they wanted to make it available in other languages to make it more accessible. TLC is currently translating the audio tour script into Spanish and Arabic. Then, TLC Training Specialist Richard Ponce de Leon and Medical Interpreting Trainer Nadia Crank will provide the voiceovers for recording the script. The Parthenon is visited by more than 300,000 people a year from across Tennessee and the United States.

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3 New Project Managers Join ITS Team

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We are so excited to welcome three new Project Managers to our Interpretation and Translation Department. ITS Project Managers serve as the point of contact external clients for interpretation and/or translation projects.

Headshot of woman with long curly hair Eileen Bernstein has served as a translator with TLC since 2020. She has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of New Hampshire and a master’s degree in political science from George Washington University.

Headshot of a woman in blue shirt with dark hairMahasweta Panigrahy has most recently worked as an early learning project coordinator at First Presbyterian Preschool in Franklin. Mahasweta holds degrees from Berhampur (India) University and the University of the Cumberlands.

Headshot of a woman with dark short hair and glassesAdrian McDaniel is a former program manager for International Scholarship and Tuition Services Inc. Adrian holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations with minors in French and Spanish from Middle Tennessee State University; as well as a master’s in international business from Southern New Hampshire University.

Welcome, Eileen, Mahasweta and Adrian!

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TLC Translation Project Supports Online Classes

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TLC has been translating Covid-19-related parent modules for online and at-home student support for the IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University. The latest project was three online classroom behavior management modules for teachers of a combined word count of almost 80k.

Supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs and located at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, the IRIS Center develops and disseminates free, engaging online resources about evidence-based instructional and behavioral practices to support the education of all students, particularly struggling learners and those with disabilities. IRIS resources have been used in teacher preparation programs by thousands of educators throughout the United States and around the world.