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UNCG: Project Connect
A four-year, $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education will help researchers in the School of Education at UNCG build vital connections between teachers and deaf or hard of hearing students.
Project CONNECT will prepare educational interpreters, providing them with the four-year degree that will be required for state licensure as of 2012. The need for educational interpreters is immense, according to Dr. Mary V. Compton, a professor of education at UNCG and the principal investigator for the project.
“In October of 2006, 50 positions for educational interpreters in the North Carolina school systems could not be filled because there weren’t enough qualified interpreters,” Compton said. “There are about 200 interpreters in North Carolina who have passed the Educational Interpreting Performance Assessment (the licensure exam already required by the state). Only 40 of those 200 have bachelor’s degrees.”
Current estimates indicate that about 24,000 children in the U.S. receive services from educational interpreters. Within North Carolina, about 425 students who are deaf or hard of hearing use interpreters.
Project CONNECT will prepare 38 educational interpreters over the next four years, giving them hands-on experience working with children and adults who are deaf. The program will be the only four-year interpreting program in the state.
“We’re providing an essential service to school systems and to the state of North Carolina itself,” Compton said.
Abut 60 percent of grant funds will go to student stipends. For each year a student receives a stipend, he or she must work with deaf or hard of hearing children for a year.
Ideally, Compton said, prospective students should have some signing skills as well as exposure to Deaf culture. Program administrators are also seeking to recruit students from underrepresented populations.
Glenda Torres, coordinator for UNCG’s interpreting program, says the role of an educational interpreter can be challenging. “It’s a whole lot more than just the signs. There are a lot of grammatical features in American Sign Language that involve body movements and facial expressions – eyebrows, mouth, torso. You have to open up another file cabinet in your head.”
For more information, contact Mary V. Compton at (336) 334-3771 or mvcompto@uncg.edu, or Glenda Torres at (336) 334-3772 or gstorres@uncg.edu.
A four-year, $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education will help researchers in the School of Education at UNCG build vital connections between teachers and deaf or hard of hearing students.
Project CONNECT will prepare educational interpreters, providing them with the four-year degree that will be required for state licensure as of 2012. The need for educational interpreters is immense, according to Dr. Mary V. Compton, a professor of education at UNCG and the principal investigator for the project.
“In October of 2006, 50 positions for educational interpreters in the North Carolina school systems could not be filled because there weren’t enough qualified interpreters,” Compton said. “There are about 200 interpreters in North Carolina who have passed the Educational Interpreting Performance Assessment (the licensure exam already required by the state). Only 40 of those 200 have bachelor’s degrees.”
Current estimates indicate that about 24,000 children in the U.S. receive services from educational interpreters. Within North Carolina, about 425 students who are deaf or hard of hearing use interpreters.
Project CONNECT will prepare 38 educational interpreters over the next four years, giving them hands-on experience working with children and adults who are deaf. The program will be the only four-year interpreting program in the state.
“We’re providing an essential service to school systems and to the state of North Carolina itself,” Compton said.
Abut 60 percent of grant funds will go to student stipends. For each year a student receives a stipend, he or she must work with deaf or hard of hearing children for a year.
Ideally, Compton said, prospective students should have some signing skills as well as exposure to Deaf culture. Program administrators are also seeking to recruit students from underrepresented populations.
Glenda Torres, coordinator for UNCG’s interpreting program, says the role of an educational interpreter can be challenging. “It’s a whole lot more than just the signs. There are a lot of grammatical features in American Sign Language that involve body movements and facial expressions – eyebrows, mouth, torso. You have to open up another file cabinet in your head.”
For more information, contact Mary V. Compton at (336) 334-3771 or mvcompto@uncg.edu, or Glenda Torres at (336) 334-3772 or gstorres@uncg.edu.