When I was young, my passion for languages was always expressed through the English language, through creative writing and investment in my English courses. During my undergraduate in Political Science, I realized the cultural and political utility of mastering languages. In this sense, language is key to reducing social distance between people and fostering global political engagement. This drove me to travel and seek opportunities to deepen my language knowledge and skills, starting with my time at the United States consulate in Chiang Mai as a cultural ambassador, then working at a refugee school in Seoul, South Korea where I taught English and Korean to North Korean refugees who had largely forgotten Korean on their way through China to South Korea. I then traveled through Mexico learning indigenous languages, mainly Yucatecan Mayan, and mastered Spanish to use as a means to learn Mayan more efficiently, as all the resources used were in Mayan.

I began my career in interpreting at the young age of twenty at the United States Consulate in Chiang Mai, Thailand, interpreting for diplomats and ambassadors to forge stronger relationships with grassroots organizations in the region. After a break to finish my undergraduate degree in political science, I began working as an interpreter between French, Portuguese, Spanish and English in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and subsequently as a Spanish to English and Portuguese interpreter in Mexico in 2021, utilizing knowledge of technical medical vocabulary in both Spanish and English (and in Brazil, Portuguese) to interpret between patients and doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel. At these positions, I learned a wide range of interpreting skills, namely the ability to interpret accurately and proficiently in high-stress situations where the speakers may be speaking quickly and at different levels of clarity, and the ability to switch between consecutive and simultaneous forms of interpreting depending on the needs of the situation at hand. 

I then began working full time at Liakas Law as their head translator focusing on civil rights and immigration cases, and my vocabulary involving immigration and legal vocabulary increased exponentially during my time at the law-firm. In interpretation sessions with clients, I would perform a sight translation of a legal document into the target language. In addition to my interpreting capacities I also engaged in written translation, legal affidavits and medical reports from both Portuguese and Spanish into English. The cumulative effect of the above experiences being the increased command of medical, legal, and political content from Portuguese and Spanish into English. 

As an interpreter has been working for Sosi court interpreting, in which my main responsibilities include simultaneous interpreting at 160 words per minute between English and Spanish, Portuguese, and a litany of other languages (see the materials submitted under language proof to view a full list of the languages I interpret with Sosi), in which an incredibly strong grasp of immigration law and various genres of political vocabulary are needed in order to interpret proficiently. My understanding of political situations as they affect the average individual in respective countries has grown astronomically during my work with Sosi, and thus my political vocabulary in relation to power structures, administrative divisions, human rights, dissident groups, dictatorial regimes, non-governmental organizations, international transit and communications, have all been strengthened to a high degree during my time at Sosi. Due to Sosi and the US Immigration court’s emphasis on faithfulness to the legal and political codes of the corresponding country of the respondent being interpreted for, I have gained a strong knowledge of the legal and political systems in hispanic and francophone countries in order to accurately interpret immigration court proceedings. While the cross examination and testimony of witnesses are generally interpreted via the consecutive technique, the vast majority of the court proceedings are simultaneous and around 160 words per minute. Therefore, I am confident in my ability to interpret Portuguese and Spanish at the mentioned speeds; both into English, and from English into Spanish and from English into Portuguese.