Students from Morris Innovative High School in Dalton, Georgia are providing voluntary language interpretation services at parent-teacher conferences in local elementary schools

A language gap looms especially large in this northwest Georgia county, home to the world's carpet and flooring industry, according to an article in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that more than one-quarter of the local population speaks Spanish at home and more than half of those are not proficient in English.

To help address this language barrier, students from Morris Innovative High School, are getting hands-on language interpretation experience by helping schools with parent-teacher conferences and school activities.

It’s a great service, said Paige Watts, the Morris Innovative teacher who organizes the student interpreters.

“Elementary teachers have to meet with every single parent on student report cards,” Watts said. “There is always a ridiculous amount of information to go over. Getting information to parents is difficult when they speak little to no English.”

"When you talk about a child's grade, it can get emotional," said Watts. "All the student interpreters have made things gel better between teachers and families. They've helped a lot, and I've watched them mature and grow up through the process."

"They want to know how their kids are doing in school," said sophomore Estela Fuentes, who has interpreted in some parent-teacher conferences. "They want their kids to succeed, and they need to get information that would be hard to get normally. I really wanted to be part of that process."

Fuentes said she's happy to help parents understand what's happening in their children's classrooms. Junior Ronaldo Adame said the work also gives the interpreters real-world practical experience.

It looks good on college applications and resumes, said Adame, and could lead to part-time work.

Sounds like a win-win situation indeed. Would you agree? Please let us know by posting a comment.

By Alex Dupont
Marketing Communications Specialist
Language Translation Inc.

See Also

• Language interpretation is a rewarding experience for student volunteers
  Language Interpreting is the process of translating spoken words from one language into another.
• Schools facing language barrier use students for translation
  Classroom meetings are hard enough when teachers struggle to explain curriculum, and parents press to learn why their children aren't making better marks.
• More about Morris Innovative High School
  Serving about 480 students in grades 9-12, this high school features a non-traditional, small-school setting with student-specific virtual learning opportunities in core subject areas.