Keri Higginbotham
ITP 4471- Community Internship
1/13/24
Learning Expectations
Community interpreting is a broad label inside the interpreting field. My understanding is
that community interpreting is anything from an afternoon school activity to an administrative
meeting and anything in between. At this point of the internship, I do have a community mentor
but we have not met to discuss the ins and outs of what this part of the internship will entail. My
mentor works for Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind (AIDB) out of Talladega. This center also
works closely with the Alabama School for the Deaf (ASD) as well as other community needs. I
am somewhat familiar with ASD as I did observation hours there about 10 years ago when I
thought I wanted to be a teacher of the Deaf and Blind. I attended the University of Montevallo
as a Deaf/Hard of Hearing Education major. Though I figured out that the educational path was
not meant for me and found my passion inside the interpreting field.
My goal for this internship is to gain as much experience as possible. That is a very broad
goal but I still feel as though I have only seen the interpreting field from the outside. I have a
very surface level understanding of what it means to be an interpreter. My experiences thus far
are not as specific to the field as needed to start interpreting with an agency or anywhere therein.
To be more specific, I expect to gain experience with sign to voice interpreting as this is probably
the most challenging aspect for me. I have met many different people and signing styles across
Alabama as I’ve gone to Deaf events so I feel comfortable with the varied signing abilities of
those in the community, therefore, taking that comfortability into my sign to voice skills is
something I hope to strengthen. I have been able to identify weaknesses in my American Sign
Language (ASL) grammar as well as the use of role shifting. As far as interpreting work, I do
find my ASL to English skills could use work as far as using varied vocabulary over typical
signed gloss. I would like to note that a couple strengths I have in ASL would be my use of facial
expressions and my ability to expand an English concept in ASL. I am hopeful that through this
internship and working with my mentor I will have every opportunity to identify more strengths
and weaknesses and overcome the ones I know already. I am not afraid of criticism; how else
will I learn if not for the criticism from those around me with the experience I am trying to
obtain? The interpreting field is one that is continuously changing and we are always learning.
Someone told me recently that they have been interpreting for 30 years and they are still
learning. If there is a point that we feel as though we know everything there is to know, we
should probably reevaluate our profession. I agree with his point. I love that this field will not
leave me feeling bored. There will always be something to learn, something to do, something
happening which is the most enriching part of this field.
I stated that I want to gain as much experience as possible and I do not want to stop at
just this community internship. I have worked in retail for the entirety of my working career and
I became complacent in the things I learned. It took me 7 years to become bored with the work I
was doing and the only things left for me to learn were upper management that I had no interest
in. The interpreting field is so varied that I do not see myself becoming bored. I have made many
friends and connections in my community over the last 4 years that I cannot see myself doing
anything else. I typically do not fit in well with my peers, but the community I have found here
accepts me for me and I feel as though my passion for this language, culture and people has
come full circle. I cannot wait to see how much more I can grow and learn over the next few
months through this internship.