At the Translation Center

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AT THE TRANSLATION CENTER

Project Manager Update

Immediate Response to the Pandemic

The Translation Center has been fortunate to continue working through the pandemic with no lapse in service. When University buildings were closed in March, project managers, along with the rest of the Translation Center team, moved to remote operation. While requests for translation of personal documents slowed, we continued providing translation for our regular corporate partners. Since March, the focus of a significant number of requested translations has been on spreading information about Covid-19 best practices. The Translation Center worked closely with UMass Human Resources to translate protocols, signage and fact sheets about Covid-19, and the various governmental relief programs so that international staff and students could be wellinformed.

In order to help support the need to quickly respond to the pandemic, the Translation Center waived rush fees for Covid-19-related translations during the months of March and April. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our translators and project management team, most of these translations were delivered within 24 hours. We were also pleased to partner with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to provide additional translations related to Covid-19 procedures in five school districts. This extra service allowed the districts to communicate with and develop remote learning plans for their students.

In Fall 2020, the Translation Center office was staffed on Tuesdays to assist students with the translation of their personal documents. We also welcomed back two work-study students to help support our work.

Shawn Lindholm

Senior Project Manger

From the Newsletter Archive

Student Assistants

Hyongrae Kim

PhD in Comparative Literature, 2020

I joined the Translation Center of the University of Massachusetts Amherst as an Assistant Project Manager in the summer of 2019, which was a special year for the Translation Center as it marked its fortieth anniversary. As part of the year-long celebrations, on International Translation Day, a public event was organized and invitations were sent out inviting individuals associated with the Translation Center to visit and share their memories of the organization, read a bit of translated literature, and share their thoughts on translation and interpreting in general.

The event gathered faculty and students, former and current staff members, and a large number of translators and interpreters who took turns speaking about their experience working with or gathered at the Translation Center. The many voices gather there is a testament to how the Translation Center has continued to, since its foundation, establish itself as a hub for scholars and practitioners of translation and interpreting. I was personally involved in the curation of the book display “On and In Translation,” which is located in room 17 of the Herter Annex. This exhibit features translation scholarship published by UMass Amherst faculty over the past forty years. Especially eye-catching are the numerous book covers that cover an entire wall of the large room in color and text. The display is both a monument to the long hours and sleepless nights spent by translators, without whose labors of love, we would not be granted windows into foreign cultures, literatures and peoples, and a testament to the Translation Center’s dedication to supporting translators and interpreters and lending visibility to the important tasks they play and interlingual/cultural/personal mediators.

Adrelys Mateo Santana

Class of 2020

I recently graduated from UMass Amherst with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a secondary major in Spanish, and a certificate in Developmental Disabilities and Human Services. I am a native Spanish speaker and I moved to the United States eight years ago from the Dominican Republic. I have spent the past year working as a Student Assistant at the Translation Center, where I had the pleasure of working closely with the director, Professor Regina Galasso, as well as with project managers Río Hernández and Shawn Lindholm, and the assistant project manager, Boyana Dragicevich. Working at the Translation Center has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire undergraduate career, as I had the opportunity of improving my translation, transcription, and costomer service skills.

My favorite part about working at the Translation Center was being able to collaborate with so many amazing professionals, which made my job educational and very enjoyable. I could not have asked for a better job or a better team! Starting in the summer of 2020, I will be working as a Laboratory Coordinator for the Self-Regulation, Emotions, & Early Development (SEED) lab here at UMass Amherst. My hope is to go on to obtain my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology and continue to use my language skills throughout the rest of my career.

Zachary Strouse, educator from the community, at the Translation Center recording his reading of a Dr. Seuss book for a bilingual audio installation at the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum.

Updating Our Physical Space

IN ITS FORTY-YEAR HISTORY, THE TRANSLATION CENTER HAS HAD SEVERAL HOMES IN HERTER HALL.

In 1999, the Translation Center moved to 442 Herter Hall. Then, at some point the TC moved to the lower-level of the Herter Hall Annex. Since 2014, the Translation Center got a small corner of the ground level of the Herter Annex in room 129. We have been updating our physical space in the lower level of the Herter Hall Annex with some much-needed maintenance and new bright colors. Once we can all return to campus, we look forward to inviting everyone back to the Translation Center.