There are many Spanish speakers that are members of the Rome community who struggle with speaking English, especially when it comes to interactions in public places. My Senior Ventures project is to work with businesses in the Rome community to accommodate Spanish speakers through signage, basic phrase sheets for workers, and possibly student translators.
Many companies have to hire a Spanish translator or a worker who speaks Spanish, but if they do not have one, the language barrier makes the interaction extremely hard for both people. However, the phrase sheet is a quick fix to this issue as the workers can refer to this sheet and, as well as signs, guide the Spanish speaker to the right place. This project will benefit the Rome community because it will further expand its resources to a larger population of its community.
For my project thus far, I have successfully created signage for the Coosa Valley Fair. I translated signs for parking, smoking, and filming and photography notices. I also created a bilingual phrase sheet for the first aid office and the EMTs in ambulances.
For the future, I plan to create signage for more local events like the Chiaha Harvest Fair. I am also working with the nurses in each Rome City school to develop bilingual phrase sheets for their offices. This will allow them to speak to Spanish speaking students to determine how they can assist them.
Watch this video to learn more about my Senior Ventures project:
The Senior Ventures leadership program is a year-long senior project built on a framework of leadership, innovation, and community engagement. The topic and the project design is chosen by an individual student or a pair of students, and the journey is guided by Darlington faculty as well as mentors in the community. Most projects fall into one of the following categories: Investigation, Performance, Entrepreneurship, and Outreach. Candidates are selected according to proposal quality, feasibility, and commitment.
