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11 Mar

Posted at 08:12h in Athena Matilsky, Community, Community Interpreting, Conference Interpreting, Interpreting, New Ideas, Recent Posts, Volunteer by
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Well, folks, I did it! I got my dream assignment. Perhaps surprisingly, it wasn’t for the United Nations, or for any other important governmental (or non-governmental) entity you may have heard of. What was it, you ask? Well, can you guess? What would your dream...

27 Nov

Posted at 11:36h in Advocacy, Athena Matilsky, Attorney Education, Business Practices, Court Interpreting, Ethics, Interpreters, Leadership, Professional Practices, Recent Posts by
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Early on in my interpreting career, I learned an important lesson: the Judge is the king or queen of the courtroom. What they say goes. This means that as interpreters, we should address the judge when we need anything. And we do need things, on...

29 Aug

Posted at 15:07h in Athena Matilsky, Interpreters, Leadership, Mentoring, Personal Growth, Professional Development, Recent Posts, Self care by
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“Tell me about your mistakes,” Sara Blakely’s father used to ask every night while she and the rest of their family ate dinner. She and her siblings would go around the table, comparing notes, discussing when they had messed up. “Congratulations,” her father would tell...

02 May

Posted at 07:09h in Athena Matilsky, Certification, Continuing Education, Court Interpreting, Interpreting, Personal Growth, Professional Development, Recent Posts, Tools of the trade, TRAINING by
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This past March, I had the privilege of hosting a community coffee hour for one of my biggest heroes. Our guest of honor was Holly Mikkelson, who, among other notable accomplishments, created the ACEBO self-study interpreting materials. She never ceased to amaze me during our...

10 Apr

Posted at 15:47h in Community, Court Interpreting, Hilda Zavala-Shymanik, Interpreters, Language Associations, NAJIT Conference, Professional Development by
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Coming Full Circle This is one of the last blogs I will write while serving as NAJIT’s Vice-Chair, so I want to write about something that I am passionate about and that is extremely relevant at a time when we are working towards better compensation...

15 Nov

Posted at 11:34h in Athena Matilsky, Business Practices, Ethics, Interpreters, Language, Leadership, Personal Growth, Professional Development, Recent Posts, Technology, TRAINING by
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During the first pandemic winter, I took on one of the hardest teaching assignments I’ve ever experienced: I tutored the son of a dear friend of mine with his fifth-grade homework. He was struggling a lot, and there were concerns that he might not be...

16 May

Posted at 11:21h in Advocacy, Athena Matilsky, Attorney Education, Certification, Court Interpreting, Ethics, Immigration, Language, Professional Hazard, Professional Practices, Recent Posts, The Profession by
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A few decades ago, “language access” was not really a phrase. Litigants who did not speak English were frequently left in the dark as to their own judicial proceedings, and this carried severe consequences. The evolution of court interpreting as a profession has relied on...