Korean interpreter Ji Eun Lee was named as the winner of ATA鈥檚 2005 School Outreach Contest at the association鈥檚 annual conference in Seattle. During the Annual Meeting, School Outreach organizer Amanda Ennis presented Ji with a $295 voucher, covering 100% of her conference registration fee, along with an ATA Certificate of Recognition.
In the colorful winning photo- graph, shown here in black and white, Ji hands a marker to a first-grade student at the Friend鈥檚 Academy of Westampton in Westampton, New Jersey, while another student looks on. A Korean translator and interpreter who works in the areas of law, business, medicine, and technology, Ji is the owner of Korean Language Services, LLC, of Mount Holly, New Jersey.
She is also a driving force in ATA鈥檚 Korean Special Interest Group. Although Ji was a relative newcomer to school outreach at the elementary school level, she found the experience very rewarding. 鈥淭he children were very attentive and enthusiastic about the topic,鈥 she noted. 鈥淚鈥檓 really glad I went.鈥
Also recognized during the Annual Meeting was Linda Pollack- Johnson, who received an honorable mention for a photograph from her school outreach presentation to high school students at the American International School in Genoa, Italy, on June 16, 2005.
The readymade presentation material on ATA鈥檚 School Outreach website proved useful. 鈥淚 spoke at the end of the last day of classes,鈥 Linda said, 鈥渁nd I feared that the students鈥 minds would already be floating down to the lovely Mediterranean beach just below the school! To combat this inevitable distraction, I surfed to the ATA website and found wonderful handouts, visual aids, jokes, and invaluable pointers. The minutes flew by, and I only wish there had been more time.鈥
Although she had made several school outreach presentations in the past, Linda鈥檚 experience in Genoa was different. 鈥淚 felt that I was in the presence of the future movers and shakers of Europe. These young people already spoke two, three, and four languages fluently and had traveled extensively, but the idea that translating and interpreting could be a lucrative profession was clearly new to them. It was as if someone had just told them they could get paid to breathe!鈥
Now back in the Philadelphia area after six months in Italy, Linda is energetically re-establishing her Italian-to- English translation and interpreting practice, which focuses primarily on medicine and the life sciences.
Both the first place and the honorable mention photographs were prominently displayed on posters in the ATA conference hotel along with a selection of other entries. ATA鈥檚 Public Relations Committee would like to thank all of the contestants, both for their photographs and for the enthusiastic accounts of their school outreach presentations that accompanied them. Future Chronicle articles will profile other 2005 contestants and highlight their school outreach experiences.
School Outreach Contest
By sharing your story and photo, you could win a free registration to the ATA Annual Conference!