Mentorship as a Career Philosophy

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 1

This essay appears in E. Winston & R. Lee (Eds.), Mentorship in Sign Language Interpreting. Alexandria, VA: RID Press.

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy

Lori A. Whynot, M.A., CI & CT, SC: L

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 2

Abstract This is an account of one interpreter’s developmental experiences over the years as a recipient and provider of mentorship at several stages of a career. It proposes to exemplify how embracing a mentoring philosophy can offer continuous give and take to a relatively young profession and to practitioners of any stage in their career.

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 3 Mentorship as a Career Philosophy Introduction In the upcoming year 2014, RID and the profession of ASL- English interpreting in the United States marks its young 50 year anniversary. In 2014, I will be one of many who celebrate nearly half of RID’s history working as an interpreter. A member of a middle generation in our short professional history, I see how far we’ve come as well as the way things are changing. I’ve observed models of mentoring emerge and evolve, personally experimenting with a few of them. Mentorship is a vital force in our individual and collective development, a tool that merits reflection and revisiting. It continues to play an integral part in our professional evolution. Mentorship has been a guiding philosophy throughout my fortunate career path. When we think of a guiding philosophy in interpreting work, professional ethics come to mind. Ethical behavior shapes interpreter practice and professional debate ensues about what is more ‘right’ than not in our work situations. The Oxford English dictionary tells us that the word “philosophy” comes via Latin from the Greek philosophia or ‘love of wisdom’. A love of wisdom, and not merely the duty to Continuing Education Units (CEUs), is the inspiration behind my commitment to lifelong learning. Wisdom comes from others who have gone before me and I believe in actively seeking it together with peers. While philosophy is concerned with the “fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence”, it is also defined as “a theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behavior” (Oxford Dictionaries Online, 2012). It is this meaning which frames the statement that mentorship is my career philosophy. A love of learning new things and sharing what I know is manifested in the ways mentoring seems to carry me along my interpreting path.

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 4 We each have a story about whom and what has shaped us personally and professionally. This is simply an account of developmental experiences as a receiver and provider of mentorship at many stages along the way. Supportive relationships among colleagues- formalized and less formal- can actively be fostered as a professional way of life. The truth is that nobody ever gets to any point of success alone. Furthermore, many readers would likely agree that success does not stop once RID has granted a certificate to practice. My professional development has occurred in a milieu where the concept of mentoring in the profession has also evolved. Without a doubt, mentor relationships are the reason I am at this point in my career: content in my work, in my professional and personal life, and in my relationship to Deaf people. This privilege would be impossible without those first Deaf friends and supportive colleagues who had more confidence in me than I did at stages in my development as an interpreter. These were my first mentors, whether or not any of us were aware of it then. The National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers (NCIEC) eloquently introduces its Mentorship White Paper with this imagery: “It has been said that a tree planted in an old forest will grow stronger than a tree planted in an open field. This is because the roots of a tree are able to follow the pathways formed by other trees and therefore, embed themselves more deeply. These pathways can even allow roots of several trees to connect, resulting in an interdependent weave that makes the forest stronger overall” (NCEIC, 2009). The imagery in this description resonates with my New England upbringing; I am a card-carrying tree-hugger. Moreover, it instills a sense of community and interdependence in the work we do. While ASL-English interpreting (and that of any language community) is complex cognitive and relational work with concurrent demands to be managed (Cokely, 1992; Dean & Pollard, 2009), the work is ultimately founded in community and

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 5 relationships. If this work and the strength of our community are like a tightly woven forest, then mentoring in all its forms is the groundwater that sustains us. “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” (Maclean, 1976, p. 102) In the same way the river pervades the lives of the characters in Maclean’s novel, I cannot remember a time when mentorship was not a guiding force in my personal and professional development over the past 26 years. Mentorships in varied shapes and forms have carved and shaped me, continuing to weave in and out of my life much like the undulating influence of a steady river stream. I believe that mentoring relationships are key forces in one’s evolution as a skilled interpreter and it continues to contribute to a commitment to lifelong learning, which is the underpinning of our profession. Early guidance Two and a half decades ago my life changed thanks to generosity, patience, and trust granted me by my first Deaf friends. I was one of those interpreters who, in the mid to late 1980s found my local Deaf community purely by chance -or perhaps it was destiny. Interpreting was initially not my career goal, yet Deaf people invited me in and became my first informal mentors and coaches. Most of my language learning was through immersion the community, having taken only 3 short classes in ASL in 1986-1988. Deaf friends corrected and guided me in a direction unbeknownst to me at the time until one day, kicking and screaming I was thrust into the role. This unstructured kind of mentoring has taken place in many arenas for thousands of years and is an important part of personal and professional development. At the same time, mentorship as we know it in our field has evolved over 2 decades where more

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 6 formal structured activities can occur (NCIEC, 2009). The mentor relationship takes many forms, be it through supportive and supervised co-interpreting between expert and novice, or through diagnostic skill assessment and/or portfolio development (Malcolm 1996, Humphrey, 2000). Not having a cohort group like many of my colleagues who came through a community college or university ITP, I had to rely on numerous workshops and informal mentoring by some of the professional interpreters I came in contact with in the years I spent filling gaps in my training. “Bridging the Gap” later became the mantra behind many a burgeoning mentorship training at a time not long after my first years after achieving RID certification. In the early 1990s, I was among the first group of ‘mentees’ served by a newly established Massachusetts Mentorship Program1 One of my later mentors, Carol Fay, jokingly called us ‘manatees’, because the coinage of the term was new and seemed oddly like what we call the graceful sea mammal. Some refer to those in the learner pair of mentoring relationships by using ‘protégé’ or ‘apprentice’. ‘Mentee’ suffices for me. The initial goal of the Mentorship Program was to support novices toward the state quality assurance interpreting credential. Even though a Deaf manager had recruited me to interpret part-time at a local University, I aimed to obtain my state credential. I was active in our local RID chapter, taking professional development workshops, volunteering to coordinate an annual interpreter weekend retreat, and benefitting from plenty of collegial support. However, I still didn’t feel like a ‘real’ interpreter. It took a colleague to tell me that I was, and needed to start identifying with the title. Doing so committed me to what I considered a large responsibility. It was a bit daunting.

1

www.massmentorship.org

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 7 At the time, I was working full-time as an advocate and state social worker with a caseload serving Deaf and hard of hearing people and their families in a large metropolitan region. I had taken the state interpreter quality assurance test a few years earlier, failing by a small margin. I needed and sought out guidance to overcome my test anxiety and muster up confidence to re-take the assessment. During the first two terms of the Massachusetts Mentorship Program, I was paired with two local Boston interpreters, Linn Staton, and then Robert Lee, with whom I apprenticed for a couple of months. This allowed me to meet with them, observe and at times interpret together on interpreting assignments and get guidance and feedback on linguistic and behavioral decisions. The impact of this immediate support and validation of my work gave me that needed ‘push’ to re-take the Massachusetts State interpreter screening. Before the first mentorship term was finished, I passed the test, and soon thereafter was hired at my first interpreting job with the state vocational rehabilitation office. Having a still-wet-from-the-printer credential, I continued to utilize mentors for much-needed, ongoing discussion and opportunities to work together as a means of supervision and skill building. In the Massachusetts Mentorship program, which is still running successfully today, almost 20 years later, participants benefit from 1:1 pairings with working interpreters, as well as workshops on varied practical topics that are given by experienced interpreters in the community. In fact, a connection with my earliest mentors through this program was the catalyst behind me attending my first RID national conference in New Orleans in 1995.

A Cure for Professional Isolation In 1993, I began freelancing part-time in the Boston area and working part-time at the State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) central office as the only interpreter in-house. As a

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 8 novice interpreter I recognized the risks of professional isolation and identified the need for more than administrative supervision. My immediate supervisor was not an interpreter yet she was responsible for assessing my job performance, While she was a superb advocate for disabled and Deaf people in the VR system, she could not assess my interpreting nor give me the kind of support I needed as a recently credentialed interpreter in a my new position. The job was created as an experiment in the changing structure of the agency’s staff interpreting services. As a result I was isolated from my other interpreting colleagues within the VR system, and therefore proposed an idea to receive what I called at the time, ‘clinical supervision’. Proposed initially by Fritsch-Rudser (1986), this model of mentoring that I was doing in 1993 was an early form of the expanded and researched work on professional supervision by Dean and Pollard (2009, Fall). Derived from my earlier employment experiences with Deaf people in mental health services, I saw merit in the social work model of clinical supervision for professional guidance. Before the decision to become an interpreter and after completing my B.A, in 1997 I received clinical and case supervision to guide me in my work as a young program director and subsequently as a case manager serving Deaf and hard of hearing persons. I was mentored via clinical case-supervision in these two jobs. Having exposure to this model of supervision and professional mentoring, at the VR interpreting job I proposed structured meetings with an experienced, certified interpreter that would guide and prepare me for taking the RID CI and CT performance tests. It was expected I obtain RID credentials within a year of hire, and mentoring would allow me to pay mentors for their time and institute a formal arrangement of support. State agencies expect evidence of budgetary spending, so my supervision needed to be structured and well

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 9 documented. We experimented with this concept of mentoring, which included skills assessment, reflective dialogues on actual situations, and discussion of ethical decisions in my work context. As a result I learned to navigate not just linguistic techniques, but more importantly some of the complexities and system conflicts that naturally arose in the government human services hierarchy with Deaf and hearing staff. These dialogues with my mentoring supervisors about situational decisions may not have had the modern-day structure of assessing demands and controls; this theory had not yet emerged. Yet it afforded me the opportunity to analyze my practice from a consequence-based approach rather than adhering to a list of nebulous ethical rules. It is this approach to ethical development that Dean (2012) suggests has much merit. Two interpreters provided this professional support to me, both of whom I emulated and whose wisdom I return to and use in my own teaching of interpreters to this day. Craig Anderson, and Carol Fay helped me find my confidence as an isolated, novice interpreter. With support, I was equipped to navigate some of the relationships between Deaf employees, hearing employees, and colleague interpreters internal and external to the state agency where I worked. They were also instrumental in advising me about readiness to sit for my RID certifications. These early relationships with some of the veterans in our profession were priceless, as they are the foundations in my work ethic and relationship to Deaf people. Formal and informal Mentoring Mentoring practice has existed for years in professional arenas of business, law, social service, medicine and the trades. Derived from the name of the King’s advisor and friend, “Mentor” in the Homer’s classic tale, The Odyssey (Hawkings & Walker, 2007), mentoring conjures up an image of senior practitioners guiding and advising novices. These

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 10 relationships can involve apprenticeships, teaching/tutoring, personal and professional coaching, business mentorship relationships, practical supervision in mental health clinical work, and medical training hierarchies found in teaching hospitals. In all its forms the core strength of mentorship is the quality of relationship between mentor and mentee. These supportive relationships are formal or informal and are traditionally viewed as short-lived, intensive periods of time in the early development of a professional’s career. Sometimes these relationships last for much longer. In the field of sign language interpreting, the practice of mentorship emerged out of a need to fill gaps in practical skills of novice interpreters. These often target new graduates of interpreting training programs (ITPs) (Frishberg, 1994), or serve as intervention mechanisms to improve the quality of educational (K-12) interpreting observed in school districts within the US states’ special education systems. In recent years, our profession offers and applies mentorship via a number of settings and mechanisms. A suggested progression of structured mentorship is outlined by Napier (2006), professional supervision by Dean and Pollard (2009, Dean, 2012), application of Demand-Control Schema (Ross, 2008), resources and models are found in Gordon and Magler’s Mentorship Companion (2007), RID Mentorship grant activities (www.rid.org), the National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers (NCEIC) and their Mentoring Toolkit (http://www.interpretereducation.org/aspiringinterpreter/mentorship/mentoring-toolkit/), and in resources on the TIEM website, such as the Master Mentor Certificate Program. (http://www.tiemcenter.org). Many of us continue to nurture supportive professional relationships, which is mentorship in an informal manner. An important cultural guide wire that I take quite seriously in my career is reciprocity. The cultural importance of reciprocity is well known to anyone

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 11 moving within Deaf communities in the United States, and likely in those of other countries. Therefore, it is appropriate to incorporate it in an approach by giving and receiving mentorship. Deaf people first mentored me, and in turn I have mentored Deaf colleagues. I have been mentored and continue to offer the same, as well rely on mentoring relationships with hearing and Deaf colleagues. In some of these early years I received mentoring and was subsequently relied upon by the local ITPs to take on practicum students in their final semester of training. These introductory apprenticeships were one other model of quasi-formalized mentoring that influenced me as well as the novices I supported. Reciprocity enters the picture here,as I have enjoyed seeing several novice interpreters develop into very skilled interpreters, with whom I have worked in more recent years. This flow of knowledge from one generation to the next through mentorship strengthens the service in our local community. As a relatively new interpreter, I was asked to supervise and guide internship students during their final semester of practical fieldwork. Initially I was unsure about how to supervise students, except to do as I had been taught by my own mentors- have them observe my work, guide discussion, and give them opportunities to put their hands up and interpret, then discuss some more. While mentoring technically starts once training is complete (RID, 2007), these internship activities were similar to what occurs with mentoring, so these students got a head start. Seeing the benefits of such support a few pursued mentorships immediately after finishing their training. These internships ultimately involved much reflection on the work and on the decisions, as well as other factors in the situations students were observing. I derived much joy from not only supporting a novice colleague through ethical or linguistic challenges, but learned

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 12 from them as well and sometimes gained a different perspective via the dialogues we shared. Recall that I hadn’t gone the traditional ITP route, so an exchange of ideas naturally came from these supervisions. My dialogues with mentees and with those who have mentored me are an integral part of building trusting relationships between and among colleagues.

Committing to Mentorship “Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect” (Maclean, 1976, p. 37) Many years later, while establishing a formal mentorship program in San Diego, a common misunderstanding expressed by potential mentors was that they believed they needed to be ‘superstar’ interpreters, or experienced educators in order to mentor. To respond to this lack of confidence and encourage more mentoring to occur, I worked with Master Mentor, Cindy Farnham, to provide training for recruited colleagues (Farnham, 2007). It included mock practice in the role, and a step-by-step manual with resource materials to organize the work of each mentor-mentee pairing. This guidance was offered to get them started, as well as convince potential mentors that they likely have what it takes to be a mentor. The role is more about the strength of professional and supportive relationships. I made it clear that everyone has something to contribute and everyone has something to learn and once given appropriate training, tools and support, anyone can be a mentor and anyone can be a mentee. Even mentors need to be mentored into the role! Often we forget that a team of interpreters usually brings together peers with complementary skills, and a potential for mutual support. Peer mentoring can be done ad hoc in pre-, during and post- assignment. This takes trust and a degree of comfort with the idea of

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 13 being informally mentored. Or it can be formally framed using Shaffer and Watson’s (2004) “Peer Mentor” dialogue model. It offers a particular structure for 1:1 collegial developmental dialogue between peers that keeps the focus on the work and not the person. I have found this model to be effective, it plays prominently in my own practice with colleagues looking to improve certain skill areas, and it resembles some of the approach of professional supervision. The mentoring dialogue pivots on mutual trust between mentor and mentee, regardless of status or years of seniority in the field. Anyone who has experienced it will attest that the benefits are often mutual. The 1:1 dialogue is a mentee-centered guided reflection. It uses active listening and clarifying as well as probing questions that are firmly grounded in the mentees strengths and evidence of success. It also uses self-critique that is guided by the peer mentor to identify patterns of thought and action. This approach is effective with novices as well as with experienced peers and with whom there is mutual trust to call one another other into a ‘cone of silence’ discussion. It can even be used ad hoc, which happens when I’ve needed to call on a colleague to help me sort out a complex interpreting situation, or when I get a phone call or email from a colleague in a similarly ‘sticky’ scenario. These are sessions that make me grateful for the well that I reach into for professional nourishment and sustenance. Mentoring towards specialization Although a status differential is commonly seen in mentor- mentee relationships, it is not necessarily required. Maynard (2007) suggests exactly this and it is evident to me in my practice, that mentoring does not benefit just newbies. Mentoring can occur as a mechanism to learning a new area of specialization.

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 14 In 2001, I participated in a 40 hour legal interpreting intensive training with 12 other colleagues. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Massachusetts Office of the Trial Court, it provided a period of 1:1 mentoring with an experienced legal interpreter for up to 100 hours required to sit the RID SC: L test. It was mentorship by observation in court, with structured and unstructured discussions. Working with Lewana Clark, I learned many things at the time about working in courtrooms, however it took me several years later to finally come back to legal interpreting as a specialty. Mentoring offers personal support to combat insecurities and professional support for skill development (Arnold, 2006). This was certainly the case in my trepidation about working in high-stakes legal situations, namely in courtroom trials. My experience was broad enough in numerous situations where legal ramifications ensued, such as child protection assessments, mental health status evaluations, emergency medicine- I had developed a specialty in medical interpreting over many years, and many cases presenting with complex emotional, economic, systemic and legal conflicts. Yet I was still not ready for court. There was still some way to go for me to feel proficient and confident interpreting in these legal settings. It was not until 2007 when I revisited my goal to gain sufficient skill and confidence to work in a courtroom. Living in San Diego I sought informal mentoring discussions with two or three legal interpreters with RID SC: L credential who worked regularly in courts in Southern California. With their agreement, I observed them in the courtroom for several civil and criminal cases to gain more comfort with the milieu and the processes. It gave me the opportunity to discuss decisions made by a few different practitioners. Through the SDCRID mentorship program I arranged to spend additional hours

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 15 with one of these colleagues, Kaylyn Waisbrot, as a formal mentor with the aim of preparing me to take the RID SC: L written and performance tests. I did succeed at this goal, and since then worked numerous times in court cases in San Diego and back in my home community in Boston. My earlier legal mentor, Lewana Clark, has continued to be a support to me when we have worked together, and I still view Kaylyn as well as Pasch McCoombs and Liz Mendoza in San Diego as legal mentors I can turn to as more experienced peers. It is important to identify mentors with different strengths because it gives a rounded perspective in my work. A specialty area such as legal settings, particularly trial court, is a place where peer-mentoring relationships are a critical resource to continue to be effective in my work. There have been times where I have naturally turned to Deaf interpreting colleagues for guidance, whether on the job or during pre- or post-assignment discussion. I recall support from a colleague Stephanie Clark - a skilled CDI, teacher, and legal interpreter alongside whom I trained in 2001. Her many hours of legal work and experience beyond my own in the past 11 years means I’ve turned to her in times we’ve worked together to peer mentor me in moments in some legal cases. Adopting this liberal philosophy of mentorship buoys my career and has opened up so many opportunities for self-discovery and a true pursuit for professional excellence. Deaf people's Role in Mentorship A resource that has been overlooked or perhaps taken for granted until more recently, is the valuable contribution of Deaf people to interpreting. Despite the fact that Deaf people play a very active role in shaping many interpreters, and have acted as interpreters among their peer groups and in other ways throughout history (Adam & Stone, 2011) their role

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 16 in interpreter mentorship is not often recognized as such. Deaf people’s role in formal mentoring relationships as language models is first noted in the literature in 2002. (WitterMerithew, et al., 2002). In my work overseeing the SDCRID Mentorship program between 2006 −2010, we incorporated Deaf mentors as well as hearing interpreters to provide support for our mentees. Mentees were assigned Deaf language mentors if they requested this specialty support, as well as when the committee recommended this for an applicant. At the time I was teaching interpreting in our local 2 year ITP, where students often presented with large gaps in their experiences and/or personal friendships with Deaf adults in our community. I’ve observed in my 12 years of adjunct teaching an increase in this trend: it is often the case that novice or student interpreters lack significant connections to their local Deaf community, causing deficits in student and novice interpreters ASL skill. The SDCRID Mentorship Project fostered these introductions and relationships with Deaf people through our Deaf language mentors. In addition, my experiences working with several highly skilled Deaf interpreters in the Boston area prompted the idea to offer mentorship to our Deaf language mentors who were interested in becoming credentialed Deaf interpreters, or CDIs. A couple of our mentors, myself included, were matched up with Deaf people who were interested in preparing for and taking the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) written and performance CDI tests. The handful of Deaf interpreters I’ve mentored mainly were working on passing the written test, and we shared some excellent discussions about ethics and professionalism while we sorted out the complex meanings that are posed in the multiple choice answer options on the written test.

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 17 Mentoring Deaf interpreters and students within a teaching role is another form of mentoring. While an ITP instructor in San Diego, I invited a couple of Deaf people who were working towards CDI credentialing to my class to meet with student interpreters. Attempting practical teaming with each other in mock situations in the classroom developed understanding and confidence in working in Deaf/Hearing teams. The CDI mentees and my students appreciated the experience and in many ways proved to the hearing students the important strengths that a Deaf interpreter team member can bring to our work. There is still more to be done to support our Deaf colleagues in the pursuit and recognition for their professional work. Unfortunately the RID written CDI test has its barriers, as I’ve observed several very skilled Deaf interpreters come close to passing but not succeeding sometimes after more than 2 attempts. As Adam and Stone (2011) indicate, there is a long history of Deaf people acting as interpreters and translators and the normalcy of their presence in the field is evolving (Stone, 2009). In many regions in the US and around the world, Deaf people serve as interpreters without professional recognition in many cases. In the US a small percentage of Deaf practitioners hold an RID CDI credential while in Australia the national interpreting and translating certifying body, NAATI, is only this year considering formal recognition of the important specialty skills that Deaf interpreters bring to the community practice. Through our mentorship efforts by SDCRID in 2007-2009 and also from a training series offered by Naomi Sheneman- a CDI employed by a local interpreting agency, a few more Deaf interpreters were able to prepare for and eventually pass the written RID test. Formal and informal mentoring models are some ways that Deaf and hearing interpreters should continue to

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 18 tap into to develop this important area for our profession. The forest fed by nurturing waters grows stronger when all of the seedlings are fed and supported. Mentoring Beyond My Backyard “A river, though, has so many things to say that it is hard to know what it says to each of us.” (Maclean, p. 102) Interpreting has taken me outside of my home community of Boston to Arizona, California, and other states in the US. It has also afforded me the privilege to work outside of the US alongside Deaf scholars, academics, and businesspersons in France, Egypt, Austria, China, Italy and Australia. Such experiences led me to learn about organizations such as the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD)2 and the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI).3 Returning to the metaphor of a flowing river that carries knowledge, mentorship played a prominent part again in my career path in my foray into international interpreting venues. I have been a member of teams of interpreters at different international events in the past 10 years, usually providing ASL-English interpreting or and more recently International Sign. Without the solicited guidance by experienced people such as Bill Moody and Christopher Stone at the 2007 WASLI conference, I would not have had a way to begin developing my International Sign interpreting work. Furthermore, teaming with skilled Deaf interpreters like Robert Adam and Nigel Howard at international conferences are opportunities that have shaped me. The interpreters I’ve met and worked with on an international level who embrace a peer mentoring attitude feed my own philosophy and inspire me to continue in this light beyond my backyard. 2 3

www.wfdeaf.org www.wasli.org

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 19 The past year has taken me overseas, where once again, the gifts that mentorship offer continue to shape and improve me, as well as posits me to learn from and contribute to the sign language interpreting profession in a different community. In January 2011, I moved to Australia on an international doctoral research scholarship at Macquarie University. Moving to a different country, far from the comfort zone of two decades of interpreting practice, I’ve had to acquaint myself with a new Deaf community and interpreters within it. It is certainly a challenge to uproot oneself from the comforts of a satisfying interpreting career in familiar surroundings and systems. At times it has felt like I’m starting all over again as a new interpreter. Nevertheless it gave me a new perspective as I taught online students in the US who struggled with some of the nuances of newly acquired ASL, because I experience parallel challenges of fingerspelling in a new two-handed fingerspelling system of Auslan. The sign languages have similar signs and at times they mean the same while at others two identical signs mean completely unrelated things, such as “father” and “chair”. New ethical quandaries and professional and personal insecurities also arise from living in a culturally different community which uses a surprisingly different dialect and lexical variation of English. I live with constant adaptation of my words because a ‘trolley’ is not a train car, a receipt is a “tax invoice”, a ‘scheme’ is actually a good kind of program -not a questionable business approach, and to ‘root’ for someone or something puts a provocative new spin on the concept. Confused reactions of others and by me, too, occur on a regular basis, mainly from speech differences and perhaps my certain American ways of behavior that are odd or entertaining to Aussies. American television doesn’t exactly prime people of other countries to

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 20 truly understand a real-life Yankee, as we are called. The history and celebrations, as well as norms within the interpreting community and the way work is organized all differ from my Boston and San Diego experiences. I’ve needed to learn the governmental, educational and social institutional programs and networks with which Deaf people and interpreters interact; this takes time and the nerve to ask the stupid newcomer questions. Even though I have years of experience there are some skills I’ve needed to learn, much in the same way that practitioners do when learning a new specialty area of interpreting. Interpreting involves technical and cognitive skill, regardless of where it takes place. However it is situated within a linguistic and culturally rich community, each having it’s own complex socio-political systems and norms, as well as ways of expressing ideas. Relearning once again from informal mentors and support people has been the only way for me to move towards effective interpreting in a new country. Fortunately my partner is a long-time Auslan interpreter and works in an organization affiliated with the Victoria School for the Deaf, which has allowed me the opportunity to meet varied Deaf people and develop new friendships in the community. I’ve been introduced me to people who been incredibly supportive guides and informal mentors to me. Through these new connections, I have once again sought out mentorship relationships, Australian Deaf friendships, and involvement in ASLIA, the Australian Sign Language Interpreter Association. Through new collegial connections, I’ve had opportunities to share my expertise as an interpreter educator and trainer, as well become a mentee once again. The ASLIA Victoria Chapter has run a successful mentorship program, first in 2007 and then again in 2011 and 2013 (ASLIA 2008, 2011, 2013). The 2011 program conveners invited me to participate as a trainer and it made sense that I should at the same time utilize a Deaf mentor for my own

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 21 development with Auslan, Australian Sign Language. I was paired with James Blythe, a leader in the Melbourne Deaf community, an interpreter and Auslan instructor, who provided me opportunities to practice and improve upon my new language skill. We remain friends and I value his mentorship, which he offers ongoing although our ASLIA mentorship term is finished. I continued to be involved with training mentors in Australia again this year, as well as am grateful for new Australian Deaf friends to guide my Auslan development. Deaf people and several interpreters informally support my integration in small but significant ways. Once again the bountiful river that is mentorship, carries me along this journey that is my life’s work. As a person who has worked and traveled extensively, having met Deaf people and interpreters around the globe, it makes sense that mentor relationships – from the most formal to less structured, despite tools or resources used- have an important role not only within local communities but also extending beyond our own backyard. Being involved on the international level through work and participation in WASLI, the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters, I’ve appreciated the privilege those of us North Americans enjoy as a result of the decades of work by RID, the Conference of Interpreter Trainers (CIT), and the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). Many other countries are moving through varied stages of development in interpreting training and practice. Deaf communities on a global level are struggling to have their languages recognized, and interpreters are a key part of this effort and should be if quality interpreting is to happen. Mentoring, in my opinion must also cross national borders. In my activities with other interpreters from different countries it is evident that mentorship relationships can impact development. Most importantly interpreters and Deaf organizations must work together, just as Deaf people and hearing people have a mutual role in the development of good quality interpreting.

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 22 In South Africa at the WFD Congress, I was asked to provide International Sign interpreting at the last minute for a full-day meeting where I had the joy of working with an interpreter from Tanzania. There is little to no interpreting training in Tanzania, and in the few hours I spent working with this new, developing colleague, it was evident that I knew very little about the reality of life for him and his local community. We both navigated the work together, pooling our skills and supported each other. He expressed a wish for more training in his home country. Political and economic barriers to training pose limits to the impact one interpreter can make through mentorship. Community network building must include government involvement, training and mentorship of interpreters, of Deaf leaders, and a local Deaf association needs to be included or developed if it is not already established. This is just one example of many where interpreting might be improved not only through collaboration, but by mentoring leaders in other local communities. There are many places in the world where interpreters need support from more established interpreter organizations. The WFD has numerous initiatives that show support for developing Deaf communities by more established national Deaf associations and WASLI supports developing interpreting communities through shared educational resources and member activities. Nevertheless as one interpreter, a former RID chapter president and an interpreter trainer, I realize there are small things I can do on an international level, even if they are less formalized at this point. It pivots on relationship building with others who are working on similar agendas. On a recent trip to the European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters (EFSLI) conference, I made a collegial connection with the newly elected president of the Czech Republic Interpreting Organization. Through our discussions, we’ve developed a collegial relationship and a friendship. I stopped in to visit her during my research trip and met

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 23 members of their board. Over a lively dinner conversation it became evident that we could continue to have dialogues via Skype, perhaps an informal mentoring relationship for the purpose of exchange of information and support. Time will only tell if our conversations will prove fruitful, as she navigates with her board some of the complexities of Deaf community relationships and a goal of contributing to a strong interpreting community. A Career Philosophy Returning to Maclean’s characters in A River Runs Through It, (Maclean, 1976), brothers Norman and Paul spend hours at the river with their father fly fishing, enjoying the pursuit of gracefully casting a fly. But it was not so much the technical skill but the life lessons in conversation that came with fly-fishing. “After my brother and I became good fishermen, we realized that our father was not a great fly caster, but he was accurate and stylish and wore a glove on his casting hand.” (p. 3) Many of us are good interpreters, accurate, and perhaps some even quite stylish in our ways. I propose that discussions within mentorship and adopting mentoring as a philosophical approach to the work can make us collectively great. Valuable contributions are given through a legacy of veteran practice and a myriad of insights from an increasing pool of new practitioners. There is more to it than just learning how to do something. The important lessons come with relationships and conversations and time. Mastering the skill of interpreting between a signed and a spoken language has its many benchmarks, and its technical aspects are relatively surmountable through proper training and via mentorships that focus on remediating technical skill areas. The more elusive pursuit is mastery and excellence, which comes from a commitment to one another and ourselves through ongoing mutual support by meaningful dialogue and mentoring relationships. My experiences are truly fortunate and they illustrate

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 24 how mentorships are suitable for all stages of interpreter’s professional lives. This philosophy values and pursues mentorship in varied manifestations as a catalytic influence in a career. “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.” (Maclean p. 104) Lifelong learning, which is at the core of skilled interpreting practice, means tapping into resources all around us, including turning to others and guiding each other in turn. For the sake of those who came before us and for those who will come after, mentoring relationships at every step of our journey are passageways to opening up our minds, to growth of a profession, and in the long run create paths of opportunity for the communities that we serve.

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Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 27 Mentoring Situations”, in DC-S: Applications of Demand Control Schema in Interpreter Education: Proceedings of the RID Pre-Conference Meeting. Pollard, R. And Dean, R. University of Rochester: Rochester, NY. Witter-Merithew, A., Johnson, L., Bonni, B., Naiman, R., and Taylor, M. (2002). “Deaf Language Mentors: A Model of Mentorship via Distance Delivery”. In L. Swabey (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th National Convention of the Conference of Interpreter Trainers. St. Paul, MN: CIT Publications (pp. 33-52). Whynot, L. (2008). “RID Mentorship Grant - San Diego County RID: The SDCRID Mentorship Project”. RID VIEWS. January 2008. World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI). Retrieved from http://www.wasli.org World Federation of the Deaf (WFD). Retrieved from http://www.wfdeaf.org/

Mentorship as a Career Philosophy 28 Footnotes