Amici Linguarum Award

RADIOLEX’s incredible team of volunteer translators received the Amici Linguarum Award (Friend of Languages) from the Kentucky World Language Association for their work as part of the Governor’s Language Access Team.

The Language Access Team was created by Gov. Beshear and his communications team with the goal of providing the public with access to official communications in their own language, and thus, save lives, protect people’s health, and minimize the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and schools.

From his first press conference on COVID-19, Gov. Beshear was joined by Virginia Moore and other sign language interpreters from the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (KCDHH). The interpreters have tirelessly provided life-saving information to nearly 700,000 Kentuckians who are deaf or suffer from hearing loss.

Soon after, in partnership with RADIOLEX, Gov. Beshear’s office began providing translated summaries of every press conference and/or detailed informational flyers in more than 20 languages. They continue to provide daily case information updates, audio summaries, and public service announcements at teamkentuckytranslations.com.

Their interpreters – some staff members, but most volunteers – have dedicated hundreds of hours to this project, often in the middle of the night or very early in the morning, so that information could be shared with the public as quickly as possible. Gov. Beshear and his Language Access Team are working to build a Kentucky where every resident, new or lifelong, feels welcome, at home, empowered, and included during any challenge the state faces.

Watch the awards ceremony.

Broadcast Volunteers

• Jiae Ahn- Korean
• Eunjung Bae- Korean
• Meenu Batra- Hindi
• Moaz Bulbul- Arabic
• Carolyn Burnette- English
• Chisaki B.- Japanese
• David Carpenter- Japanese
• Yukie Cooper- Japanese
• Miki W. Duke- Japanese
• Hyo Jin Han- Korean
• Misa Ito- Japanese
• Takae Ito- Japanese
• Vincent Maggard- English
• Huajing X. Maske, UK Confucius Institute- Chinese
• Yuri Misa- Japanese
• Makoto Ono- Japanese
• Marta Roller- Spanish
• Kate Savage- English
• Anelia Shimansky- Russian
• Min Son- Korean
• Amy Su- Japanese
• Kazushi Takahashi- Japanese
• Dr. Akiko Takenaka, UK History Department- Japanese
• Paul Tillier- French
• Shuntella Whitfield- English
• Sanida Palavra Wolfe- Bosnian
• Shasha Wu, UK Confucius Institute- Chinese
• Guilin Zhang, UK Confucius Institute- Chinese
• Lei Zhao, UK Confucius Institute- Chinese
 

Translation Volunteers

• Jiae Ahn- Korean
• Eunjung Bae- Korean
• Meenu Batra- Hindi
• Rania Belmadani- Arabic
• Moaz Bulbul- Arabic
• Chisaki B.- Japanese
• David Carpenter- Japanese
• Yukie Cooper- Japanese
• Miki W. Duke- Japanese
• Hyo Jin Han- Korean
• Gana Hooker- Mongolian
• Claudia Hopenhayn- Spanish
• Misa Ito- Japanese
• Takae Ito- Japanese
• Samira Khorshidi- Persian
• Jason Knapp- Spanish
• Namhee Lin- Korean
• Huajing X. Maske, UK Confucius Institute- Chinese
• Yuri Misa- Japanese
• Shivani Nandi- Japanese
• Faye Natour- Arabic
• Anna Nguyen- Vietnamese
• Makoto Ono- Japanese
• Lilly Pankiv- Russian and Ukrainian
• Nidia Pecol- Spanish
• Alisa Pifine- Louisville Catholic Charities volunteers- French
• Marta Roller- Spanish
• Anelia Shimansky- Russian
• Min Son- Korean
• Amy Su- Japanese
• Kazushi Takahashi- Japanese
• Dr. Akiko Takenaka, UK History Department- Japanese
• Paul Tillier- French
• Basel Touchan- Arabic
• Sanida Palavra Wolfe- Bosnian
• Shasha Wu, UK Confucius Institute- Chinese
• Guilin Zhang, UK Confucius Institute- Chinese
• Lei Zhao, UK Confucius Institute- Chinese

Advisors & Other Volunteers

Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash