The 2018 recipient of the Collin Welch Interpreting Scholarship is Stephanie Riches.
Stephanie is currently in the interpreting program here at Salt Lake Community College and is on track to graduate in May of 2018.
She is a dedicated student. She was an officer in the ASL club at SLCC for 3 years, will graduate with over 140 credit hours, and is looking forward to her last semester internships with the Utah Interpreter Program and Sorenson.
Stephanie is involved in the community in other ways. She works at Caption Call, and has already done internship hours with the LDS church’s interpreting department.
She did not start off in ASL. Originally, she started school as a dance major. It was not until she had a small injury that she started to rethink that. That combined with the fact that she had a friend at church who signed and taught her a few words. She was hooked! Her background in dance and movement is probably what first attracted her to sign language. As she got involved, she fell in love with the language and culture as well. It got to the point where she started ignoring her homework because she would rather spend the time learning ASL.
Her first goal is to get her certification. She eventually would like to work in community interpreting and with the LDS church, as well as be there for her family. She wants to get her national certification, and possibly teach ASL someday. Either way she figures working on her certification will help her with her goals.
Stephanie will be receiving $1,000 to go towards the Spring 2018 semester. She wishes to express gratitude for the scholarship. Between work, school, family and transportation issues, she says this makes one less thing she needs to worry about
The Collin Welch scholarship is named in honor of another dedicated ITP student, Collin Welch, who graduated in 2012 and passed away in 2014. The scholarship was initially funded with a GoFundMe account set up by his coworkers and friends.
Ongoing support for the scholarship is needed, and any amount is appreciated.
To contribute, go to SLCC’s website at: https://sasbot.slcc.edu/webforms/donations/onlinegiving/donations.aspx
(or search ‘give now’ on the SLCC website)
~ Under the ‘Donation Intention’ drop down box, Select: ‘Scholarships in a specific academic area’
~ And in the ‘Use My Donation For:’ box, write: ‘Collin Welch ASL/English Interpreting Scholarship’
