“For Women, Economic Mobility Happens in Community”

Founder and Executive Director Maria Vertkin’s reflections on 2019, and vision for Found in Translation in 2020, as seen in our End of Year Newsletter.

Dear friends,

Looking back, what started out as a job training model has become so much more. Over eight years of organizational growth and learning, I’ve come to believe that for women, economic mobility happens in community.
Today, by design, Found in Translation is, above all else, a community. Earning a Medical Interpreter Certificate and joining the interpreter workforce is just the beginning. Returning as volunteers, donors, instructors, and employers, our students soon become partners. They are our—and each other’s—greatest resource.

Our Career Advancement programming evolves proactively and responsively to our graduates’ ever-changing goals and needs over the course of years as they advance in the workforce. And an engaged community of successful alumnae, in turn, accelerates and amplifies the success of new graduates.

Looking ahead, our 2020 vision (ha!) is ambitious: to double the number of interpreters trained per year. And as expected, investment in the social capital of our alumnae community is at the core of our growth strategy. In 2019 we’ve made investments into two key program areas:

1) Growing our in-house Interpreter Services, spearheaded by Partnerships Coordinator David Chen, to expand direct job placement opportunities in preparation for more graduating interpreters.

2) The launch of a formal Teacher Training Track, under the leadership of Career Advancement Manager Karen Walker and Head of Interpreter Education Bindiya Jha, to support our graduates with ambitions to teach interpreting, and in anticipation of our need for more trainers. I am proud to say that in Class of 2019, nearly 80% of our faculty were our own graduates! 

Just as our interpreters’ success is made possible through community, so we as an organization owe our success to you—our community of donors, advisers and volunteers. Thank you for being there for us! 

With deep gratitude,

Maria Vertkin, Founder and Executive Director

In case you missed it, check out our full 2019 End of Year Newsletter here.