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  • Writer's pictureBayLeigh Routt

AmeriCorps VISTA May Report

Compared to the last few months, May has been rather uneventful work wise. I started preparing for the Core Medical Interpreter Training, which required creating a questionnaire via Google Forms and sending it to our list of interested candidates. Afterwards, I made another copy of our registration form and scholarship application from the Fall 2017 CMIT course; once my supervisor and the scholarship committee approved the forms, I sent them to everyone who completed the questionnaire. The deadline to complete both of these forms is June 1. I think next month is going to be busier since I will have to instruct the candidates to schedule (and complete) a language proficiency exam with a third party, inform them if they received a scholarships, and collect course payments before the summer CMIT course begins at the end of June.


Because of a grant we received from LexArts for our Language Access Film Festival, we assisted with their Art Showcase weekend that occurred May 18-20. On Saturday, May 19, and Sunday, May 20, we screened the 13-minute short-film Listen since the company allowed us to show it one more time without paying for the rights again. I assisted with the screening on Saturday, but not many people showed up; a KITA board member, a LexArts representative, an employee of the Downtown Arts Center, and two acquaintances of the board member attended in addition to myself. Afterwards, we had a brief discussion about the film (like we had before during the film festival). The two acquaintances of the board member are a part of an organization called the Bluegrass Indo-American Civic Society. The speaker described an Indian tradition called Rangoli, an art form in which patterns are created at the entrances of a home’s using materials such as colored rice, dry flour, or colored sand.


This is the piece of Rangoli we made at the Art Showcase.

I enjoy meeting new people and learning about other cultures. I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn about Rangoli from an Indian woman who taught me to make it.

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