Cook County High School graduate Laura Weitz graduated on September 6, 2013 from the summer session of the Video Relay Service Interpreting Institute’s School-to-Work program. She is one of only 12 of St. Paul College’s Interpreter Education Program graduates to be chosen for the program. Weitz resides in Minneapolis.
The Video Relay Service Interpreting Institute is a training facility dedicated to lifelong mentoring and training for American Sign Language interpreters and interpreter educators. Each year, the institute chooses 12 or fewer top-level St. Paul College Interpreter Education Program graduates to enter its semi-annual School-to-Work Program.
The institute’s School-to-Work program, an intensive, 13-week immersion program, is the only one of its kind in the United States or Canada. Applicants must qualify by passing a rigorous screening process. Accepted students, or “interns,” live onsite and receive additional interpreting training and one-on-one mentoring and participate in professional internships in the deaf community. The program was designed to help St. Paul College Interpreter Education Program graduates bridge the gap between graduation and work readiness.
The School-to-Work program was founded to help raise the quality of American Sign Language interpreting in the United States. Many School-to-Work graduates are now working in educational interpreting program settings or have become mentors, helping other newly graduated American Sign Language interpreters.
At graduation, an intern from the 2013 summer graduating class stated, “Words can’t describe the experience we’ve had here. This has made such a difference in our lives.”
The Video Relay Service Interpreting Institute, established by Sorenson Communications in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2009, offers curriculum designed especially for Video Relay Service interpreters and utilizes the latest, highest-quality video relay and educational technologies. Sorenson Communications is the largest employer of American Sign Language interpreters in the U.S.
Laura is the daughter of Clara and Tim Weitz of Grand Marais. She is a 2003 graduate of Cook County High School.
Leave a Reply