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The
first thing students in the UWM Interpreter Training Program wanted to do at
graduation was thank the Deaf and interpreter communities, as well as families
and friends, for supporting them during their studies.
After all, how can you learn interpreting unless you do it? And clients' communication needs don't always fall between 9 and 5.
"We really intrude on people's lives," said graduate Amy Fryman. "We go everywhere with the Deaf and hard-of-hearing people we are working with, and we work odd hours."
Indeed, the ITP, a program that began 15 years ago in an abbreviated form and became a two-year program two years ago, prepares students for nontraditional jobs. So staff and students prepared a nontraditional graduation ceremony at the School of the Arts Theatre May 13.
They staged a parody of "The Wizard of Oz," chronicling Dorothy's struggles on the way to completing interpreter training. (Students from the Wisconsin School for the Deaf built the backdrops.)
In the second half of the ceremony, the staff built a Yellow Brick Road of paper "bricks," one for each graduate, symbolizing how members of the class supported each other. On each brick was an attribute that fit a particular student. "Mine said `Forward Thinking,'" Fryman said.
The spring graduates were the program's first to complete the two-year program, says Associate Professor Joanne Vandenbusch. Under the auspices of the School of Education's Exceptional Education Department, the ITP begins with basic courses and prerequisites. Then, while other students are taking method courses and doing their student teaching, ITP students undergo intensive, on-the-job training with the Deaf and hard-of-hearing.
Students must complete a minimum of 250 fieldwork hours per year. ITP students work closely with the UWM Student Accessibility Center, interacting with hearing-impaired UWM students, as well as with the Wisconsin School for the Deaf.