USU certifies its first medical interpreters
World Languages & Cultures Department Head for Spanish, Crescencio López-González’s dream became a reality on Oct. 28 when 12 individuals from the community received their certificates for medical interpreting.
“When I took on this job, they asked me what I wanted to do for the department, as department head, and I clearly said that my number one goal was to create a translation interpretation program. And if the faculty was okay with that, I was going to pursue that,” López-González said.
López-González saw a need in the Utah community for more medical, business, and court interpreters. Utah State Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla saw the same need, as she used to be a medical interpreter, and she passed a bill providing Utah State University with funding to begin a translating and interpreting program, according to López-González.
The first cohort who graduated was part of the free community classes taught by the program’s co-director, Elsa Pérez. These classes cover the same material USU students will be able to learn in classes next semester.
The next class will be held on Jan. 13. To receive a certificate, 40 hours of training are required.
Within two days of enrollment being opened, 60 people had signed up, according to López-González. He had to close registration because they do not have enough faculty to assist more people.
“It has become a very popular program for our students here as well as the community,” Pérez said. “I’ve been receiving emails from people in BYU Idaho and Weber State. They want to come every weekend to receive our courses here.”
According to Pérez, their program is better suited for students and individuals who would like practical applications for their multilingual talents.
“I think our program is more skill-based. That means that as soon as the students take our courses, they can actually start working right away. So that’s an advantage. It is less theoretical and more practical,” Pérez said.
Next semester, USU will begin offering classes to prepare students for their certificate while earning university credit for healthcare, legal, and business interpretation and translation, according to Pérez.
Sofía Monzón Rodríguez is an assistant professor in the department, and she will be teaching the legal and business classes next semester.
“The beauty of this program is everyone, no matter what your major is, can come and we’ll give you those skills,” Monzón said. “We’ll train you to put those language skills into use. You go on, and you can be anything that you want to be plus a translator and interpreter. There’s a really high demand for this.”
Along with learning the basics of interpreting and translating, the classes will provide instruction on terminology, code of ethics, how the healthcare system works. They will also provide practice scenarios through materials they are developing.
“The more skills they have, they have better pay and more benefits,” Pérez said.
Not only does Pérez believe this certificate will benefit the students and individuals who come through the course, but she also sees this as a need in the community.
“We have a lot of immigrants in our state. And also, there’s more coming, you know, from Ukraine and other places as well. So we need to be prepared for those to bring them the services they need,” Pérez said.
The course is not open yet, but there are students who are trying to get in, according to López-González.
“Everyday I have ten more emails asking to be in the program,” Pérez said.
As of now, the courses are being taught in Spanish, but there are plans to add Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Navajo, French and Farsi.