Ohio State is in the process of revising websites and program materials to accurately reflect compliance with the law. While this work occurs, language referencing protected class status or other activities prohibited by Ohio Senate Bill 1 may still appear in some places. However, all programs and activities are being administered in compliance with federal and state law.

Amplifying the Impact of Youth Language Brokers 

"To build an infrastructure that enhances youth language broker skills and experience to leverages their capacity for medical, legal, and other interpretation in the service of non-English speaking communities" 

This is the opportunity that Amplifying the Impact of Youth Language Brokers will optimize. 

In 2015 there were more than 200,000 Limited English Proficiency speakers in Ohio, all of whom, like proficient English speakers, require medical, legal, and other forms of social and civic services. Many of these people are in families that depend on young family members to interpret and/or translate on their behalves.  Young people who are legacy language speakers (grew up speaking a language at home) and provide translation and interpretation for family members are often referred to as Language Brokers.  

Studies have shown that performing this function can have positive and negative social, emotional, and academic impacts on these young people, their families, and the communities in which they live. As linguistic and cultural interpreters, Language Brokers are often the bridge between marginalized new-comer (or returning) community members and the important services they need. However, when Language Brokers are quite young, they are sometimes in situations that may be inappropriate to their age or maturity levels (having to share difficult medical or legal news in clinics or elsewhere, for example).  

  • The Amplifying the Impact of Language Brokers Project is designed to achieve several goals at once.  

  • The first is to support the need that non-profit organizations servicing new-comers and returning immigrant community members by providing trained high-school aged legacy language interpreter interns.  

  • The second is to provide holistic training and mentorship to these students through a stackable certification program that both leverages their abilities while also up-skilling them so that they can be viable interns for corporate partners upon entering college.  

  • The third goal is to create a foundation that will support these young people and their families (and, by extension, the broader community) by circulating resources.  

  • A fourth goal is to increase enrollments to Ohio State language programs whose graduate students have been working in collaboration with community organizations and these students building relationships of trust and support that will increase the likelihood that Language Brokering young people will be eligible for acceptance at Ohio State and other institutions of higher education in Ohio and beyond.