On Thursday, September 28, UT Arlington’s Spanish Community Translation and Interpreting Program, which was founded and is currently directed by Dr. Alicia Rueda-Acedo, a professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages, received the prestigious Example of Excelencia from the Excelencia in Education organization. Dr. Rueda-Acedo was accompanied at the award ceremony by Dr. Mónica de la Fuente Iglesias, the director of the certificate in Spanish Interpreting, Dr. Jennifer Cowley, the President of UT Arlington, and Dr. Tamara Brown, the Provost of the University, Dr. Jewell Washington, Vice President of Talent, Culture, and Engagement and Dr. María Martínez-Cosio, Sr. Vice Provost Academic Affairs, ad interim.
Founded in 2004, Excelencia in Education is a nationally recognized non-profit that promotes Latino student academic achievement through policy analysis, the promotion of impactful institutional practices, and recognizing innovative and transformative educational programs. Excelencia recognized Dr. Rueda-Acedo’s Spanish Community Translation and Interpreting Program for its “intentional and culturally relevant evidence-based practices” in promoting the success of Latino students. The UTA Modern Languages Newsletter spoke with Dr. Alicia Rueda-Acedo, the translation program’s founder and director, about this national honor.
Congratulations on receiving the Example of Excelencia Award. Can you tell us a little bit about your Community Translation and Interpreting Program?
Thank you. Our mission is to provide a high-quality education that allows our graduates to respond to the growing demand for translators/interpreters in the US. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of translators/interpreters is projected to grow 24% by 2030, three times faster than the average for all occupations. We want our students to successfully obtain these jobs after graduation. Our program faculty and curriculum focus on equipping students with the skills and credentials to succeed in their translation and interpreting careers.
When did you start this program?
I offered the first translation course at UTA 18 years ago, in the Fall semester of 2005. The certificate in Spanish Translation has been offered since the Fall of 2006. It was the first certificate in translation created in North Texas, and it aims to combine the teaching and practice of community translation with experiential learning, including internships and service-learning. Our first student cohort obtained the Certificate in Translation in 2008. In 2014 we created a Certificate in Interpreting and a B.A. in Spanish Translation & Interpreting. The B.A. is one of the few programs in the nation in this area, and the only one oriented towards community T&I and service-learning/internships. We actively recruit Latino heritage speakers who find in this program an invaluable opportunity to professionalize their skills. It’s important to remember that most of them are language brokers, meaning that they have spent their lives translating for their parents and community members. I’m proud of the fact that the program has grown so much since those early days when I founded the program. We started with seven students in the Fall of 2014 and in 2022 had 40!
Can you tell us about some of the Program’s recent projects and community partners?
We collaborate with over 35 community partners where students obtain professional experience while serving the community. For example, they translate for Proyecto Inmigrante, a non-profit organization for immigration counselling services, where 10 Latino students were hired after completing service-learning. A total of 199 students (91.70% Latinos) out of 217 enrolled in a legal translation service-learning course were provided with 5,524 hours of work experience (over 3,500 translated documents). The average cost of these legal translations would range from $300,000 to $550,000. I should add that the CEO of Proyecto Inmigrante, Danilo Interiano, is a graduate of our Spanish program. Currently, thirteen Latino students are working as medical interpreters for Dallas Children’s, UTSW, Cooks, and JPS after being service learners. School districts, non-profit organizations, churches, and public libraries are included among our community partners. We have also created numerous paid and unpaid internships with partners such as Teneo Linguistics Company, The Agape Clinic, UT Southwestern, The Mercy Clinic, Genesis Womens Shelter and Support, Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, etc. We also offer an externship with Children’s Medical Center Dallas. Our students have completed nearly 4,000 hours of internship service since 2015 and nearly 400 students from our program have provided over 6,782 hours of service-learning support to North Texas, non-profit community partners.
What kind of feedback from students and non-profit partners have you gotten about the impact of your program?
Students really value it. Incorporating experiential learning activities such as service-learning, externships, and internships has been an extraordinary complement to classroom instruction and an excellent way to provide students with professional experience before graduation. When participating in experiential learning activities, students understand the relevance of their surrounding communities, develop their translation and intercultural competences, and gain civic responsibility and active citizenship. They also add a line to their résumé before graduating and can decide whether translation and interpreting is their career path. This is something students always highlight in their reflective essays after participating in our service-learning components.
What are your hopes for the future of your program?
We are working to expand the program to students in other areas such as nursing, pre-medical, pre-dental, pre-optometry, pre-pharmacy, pre-physician assistant, psychology, public health, kinesiology, and social work. Now that we have received the Example of Excelencia we need to continue intentionally serving Latino students while serving all students, particularly those who are going to be working in the areas where quality Spanish language services are needed the most: education, legal and immigration services, and health and human services.
Thank you Dr. Rueda-Acedo for your time. Congratulations again on your award.
For more information on the major, minor, and certificates in Spanish translation in the Department of Modern Languages at UT Arlington, click on this link.
