Related Links:http://nci.arizona.eduUA National Center for Interpretation
Newswise — The University of Arizona National Center for Interpretation has received a grant awarded by the United States Department of Education through its Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). The three-year,$471,241 grant will support a new program, "The Arizona Initiative to Improve Latino Access and Academic Success." It marks the beginning of a collaborative effort to develop Arizona's first undergraduate degree in translation and interpretation for Spanish-English, and only the second nationwide.
The program will institutionalize an undergraduate major and minor course of study in translation and interpretation at the UA, as well as collaborate with plans at Pima Community College in Tucson to implement a "two-pus-two" associate degree which will enable students to transfer to the UA toward a bachelor's degree. The project also will work with other Arizona institutions of higher education to help interested bilingual students prepare for this degree program at the UA.
"The Arizona Initiative to Improve Latino Access and Academic Success is a vital program to address both the educational challenges of Latino students and the overwhelming need in the workplace for specialized bilingual skills," said Roseann D. Gonzalez, director of the National Center for Interpretation. "Up to this point, we have failed to fully capitalize on and develop the valuable bilingual and bicultural assets of Latino students. This project will help us create a viable education path here at the University of Arizona that builds on the strengths of these students and at the same time assists the Hispanic community locally and nationally."
By establishing a degree program accessible to bilingual Latino students throughout Arizona, the new initiative meets several goals shared by the UA and the greater Tucson community, including: (1) increasing postsecondary educational opportunities for Latino students; (2) increasing Latino enrollment and retention rates at the UA; (3) creating an educational program designed to increase the number of bilingual graduates entering the workforce with specialized language skills; (4) creating a program that improves minority student academic success; and (5) creating a model degree program for language minority populations that can be disseminated nationwide.
The Arizona Initiative to Improve Latino Access and Academic Success is the second FIPSE grant awarded to the National Center for Interpretation, and builds on the success of its first project, the Professional Language Development Project (PLDP, begun in 1999.
PLDP began as a pilot summer institute focused on recruiting local-area bilingual high school students for three weeks of intensive language skills training. The institute has attracted more than 87 high-achieving Latino students and still operates with financial support from the UA. PLDP students have shown remarkable improvement in language, reading and writing skills, including an average grade-point average increase of 0.27 percent upon returning to high school.
In addition, PLDP students demonstrated significantly higher matriculation and retention rates, as compared to the general undergraduate Latino population at the UA. One hundred percent of PLDP students have indicated they would be interested in pursuing a major or minor in translation and interpretation, if offered by the UA.
Matching funds and other support for The Arizona Initiative to Improve Latino Access and Academic Success are provided by the University of Arizona Office of the Provost, Office of the Vice President for Research, College of Humanities, department of English, Mexican-American studies, Office of Enrollment Management, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Pima Community College.
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