These are letters and emails we have received from clients and comments from anonymous course critiques that participants fill out at the end of each seminar.

The role of an interpreter has changed tremendously in the last few years. While the growing immigrant population increases the need for services, the quality of interpretation must be a matter of serious concern.

Ethics and standards are critical to the role of an interpreter as they must be trusted to convey highly-confidential and detailed legal, medical, and educational information. The accuracy of the interpretation must be of exceptional quality in order to assist clients successfully as well as to insure proper services are provided by the English-speaking parties.

Failure to adhere to high ethical and interpreting standards that are taught, used consistently and documented creates a possibility of misunderstandings and improper care, not to mention legal issues.

For these reasons, Cabarrus County Schools has chosen to require training of all system interpreters in established ethics and standards. Practice is provided until proficiency is reached thereby assuring the system of highly-qualified services to parents and children.

The provider for the Cabarrus County interpreter training is Panoltia, an organization we have found to be very professional and very well equipped to meet our needs and requirements.

Marion R. Bish, Ed. D.

Director of Federal Programs

Cabarrus County Schools

Concord, NC

On behalf of the Wilkes County School System and Title I, I would like to share with you our rationale for investing in Panoltia Interpreter’s Training. We were first introduced to the Interpreter’s Training through our Diversity Specialist, Annette Snider. Ms. Snider recommended that we send two of our interpreters to the Panoltia Training which was advertised as a regional training by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Unfortunately the training was filled and we were unable to take part in that particular session.

However, not to be thwarted, Ms. Snider computed the cost of sending two interpreters outside the region for this training versus the cost of bringing the training to the LEA and we quickly realized that the second option was actually more economical. With just a bit more funding we were able to train ALL of our interpreters because we did not incur the expense of travel and lodging.  We looked at two funds for supporting this effort. The first fund we considered was Title II funds which are primarily used for staff development. We then considered Title I LEA Improvement funds which were the funds we eventually decided to utilize.

We were so pleased with the response of our interpreters to and with the training that we immediately decided to arrange for the second session. We will continue to cover the cost of this training with Title I LEA Improvement funds because it has definitely strengthened the professional expectations for our interpreters and improved communication throughout the district.

In short, we highly recommend Panoltia Interpreter’s Training to all districts that employ interpreters regardless of the chosen funding source.

Vickie C. Hugger, Ed.D.

Director of High School Initiatives,

Federal Programs: Title I & Title II

Wilkes County Schools

North Wilkesboro, NC

Our bilingual staff members thoroughly enjoyed the training and benefited greatly from the experience, stating that they now feel much better equipped to meet the needs of our growing LEP population.

We highly recommend Mrs. Metivier’s training to bilingual employees of any school or organization with an interest in community interpreting. For further discussion, please feel free to call me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX. *

* Number furnished on request. Contact Panoltia if you would like to speak to this person.

Catherine Dillon

ESOL Lead Teacher

ESOL Program Office

Greenville County Schools

Greenville County, SC

"I would absolutely recommend this course to others!"

"The instructor's presentation style really held my interest."

"This was a great course. The instructor presented it with a lot of energy. I loved it!"

"The terminology section in the handbook will be very helpful! Thank you."

"Great course if you are thinking about becoming an intereteter"

"Excellent course, I would like to have more courses like this."

"¡Fue una presentación Espectacular!"

(It was a spectacular presentation!)

"Yasmin is an excellent instructor and she has a wealth of interpreting experience. She really taught me a lot."

"This course really opened my eyes!"

"This course was excellent. I really learned a lot."

  "Yasmin is an excellent instructor."

"This course is excellent - a must for school employees."

"I would love administration to attend this course."

"I loved this course - I'm looking forward to taking Level 2."

"I wish I had had this training before I started teaching ESL in the public schools."