Being involved with the Deaf community, staying up on current trends, continuing

education, and being members of professional organizations are all necessary parts of
being an interpreter. I have always taken these things very seriously and have seen the
benefits throughout my work.
Throughout my 3 years in this ITP, I have been extremely involved in taking online
workshops as well as ones in person. In my artifact, you can see just several of the
CEU certificates that I have received from attending workshops. I have attended
roughly 40 workshops and approximately 15-20 Deaf events.
Workshops such as:

Interpreting in Domestic Violence Matters

The Art of Sounding Good in the Hot Seat
Chemical Dependency
Culturally Rich ASL
Interpreting for Child Signers: Tips to Enhance Your Sign-to-English Interpreting
Skills
Was There a Violation? CPC
Unveiling the Tricks of the Trade by Using Space, Classifiers, and Personification
AIM conference
DB-TIP conference
KAI-RID conference
Zaboosh conference
Silencing the Negative Committee
Language and Theory of Mind in Deaf Children
Parsing Course
Ethics in Social Media

*and many more

Deaf Events such as:

Deaf Church
Deaf Chats
Deaf Night Out
And simply being with my Deaf friends

Not only did these workshops allow me to earn CEUs to maintain my certification, it
also provided amazing learning and growth opportunities. Much of what was learned
was used in my professional work and I was able to share my knowledge with my
classmates throughout the ITP. I was also able to take what I have learned and apply it
to my Discussion Board conversations as well as incorporate it into many of the papers
that I have written.
I am a member of RID, KAI-RID (Kansas Chapter), KAD (Kansas Chapter), and
KCAP (Kansas Community Action Plan). I have also been on a K-12 educational
interpreter focus group with the NIEC. Being a member of RID, has allowed me to stay
abreast of what is happening within our field, to learn current trends and hot topics, and
help me to track my CEUs. Being a member of KAI-RID has helped me keep up on our
current laws and the changes that are taking place within the state. It has also allowed
me to better network with the interpreters in Kansas. The KAD membership, keeps me
up to date on what is happening within our local Deaf community and to find events to
be involved with. My membership to KCAP has been an amazing one. I have been
involved with our currently LEAD-K legislative bill that will help all Deaf children to be
kindergarten ready within Kansas.