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Sign language interpreters are 'links for communication'
Posted: 4/21/2009 4:50:16 PM
Lauren Watson (right) signs for students as Mary Beth Selbach teaches a class.
By Nyerere Davidson
Contributing writer
“Hello, Miss Watson!” can be heard singing from the mouths of students at Milwaukee Sign Language School as Lauren L. Watson, walks down to the hallway to her first class of the day. Equipped with a bright smile and an optimistic attitude, the 25-year-old Milwaukee native begins to prep for her day as a sign language interpreter.
For Lauren, a third-year sign language interpreter for the Milwaukee Public Schools school district, her career path seems to be less of a coincidence and more of a destined passage.
“I have a deaf younger brother and with the death of my parents in high school our communication had began to break down. The complexities of his language were more than I could fathom,” she explains. “The next logical choice was to take intensive sign language classes in college. … I began to learn more about sign language and interpreting was formally introduced to me and it became intriguing — and here I am now, an interpreter for MPS.”
While taking the tools she acquired while earning an Educational Sign Interpreter Technician associate’s degree from the Milwaukee Area Technical College, Lauren has become a role model for her students.
“I hope to continue to positively impact the lives of both deaf and hearing,” Lauren says. “My goal is to be a good language model – many deaf children’s parents don’t sign at home, so most of their sign language exposure is at school. She said her love for children is the motivation she needs to go to work every day.
Although the sign language interpreter position at MPS falls under the paraprofessional category, several interpreters take on roles as teachers and mentors for many of the students.
“My job differs from a teacher because I am a conduit of language. … I take spoken language and put it into sign language or vice-versa,” Lauren adds. “They are not my words, but those of the hearing person or deaf person. I facilitate communication.”
Kris Priebe, a fellow sign language interpreter at Milwaukee Sign Language School, agrees.
Like a teacher, I am responsible in part for my students’ education. It is my responsibility to relay the class content accurately so that deaf children have equal access to their own education,” Kris says. “Through the frustrations, the successes and the socio-economic struggles the children in MPS often face, I am also there as a supporter and mentor to all the students the same as any good teacher would be.”
Kris says being a language interpreter is both challenging and rewarding. “It is one of the most difficult jobs I can imagine. An educational interpreter is responsible for behavior management, tutoring, interpreting a message clearly, and maintaining a strict code of conduct.”
For both Lauren and Kris, careers as sign language interpreters are outlets to future opportunities. Kris is currently attending nursing school and plans to become a nursing professor at a college. Lauren is attending Mount Mary College pursuing her bachelor’s degree in education. She plans to make the transition from sign language interpreter to teacher.
The same as Naomi Guzman did.
Guzman, a teacher of the deaf and hard-of-hearing at MSLS, was an interpreter for nine years before stepping into her first year as a teacher. Several factors helped her to make this decision.
“Being an interpreter is not the most financially lucrative profession, and I wanted more of a responsibility that I wasn’t allowed to have as an interpreter,” Naomi says. “A lot of interpreters have the same amount of education and expertise as a teacher, so I decided to go for it.”
Naomi relishes her combined role as an interpreter and a teacher.
“We are links for communication,” she says.