The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2023 - 28

Profile of ATA's 2022 School Outreach Contest Winner:
Aída Carrazco
This year's ATA School Outreach Contest winner gave an interactive presentation on translation
at Instituto Thomas Jefferson in Zapopan, Mexico.
By Molly Yurick
A
TA-certified
English>Spanish
translator Aída
Carrazco won the 2022 ATA
School Outreach Contest. She
received a free registration
to ATA's 63rd Annual
Conference in Los Angeles,
California, for submitting
a story and photo she took
with students during her
interactive presentation
to her son's classroom at
Instituto Thomas Jefferson in
Zapopan, Mexico.
Keeping Students
Engaged with an
Interactive PostPandemic
Presentation
Both of Aída's children attend
Instituto Thomas Jefferson, a
bilingual school where more
than half the subjects are
taught in English. Aída said
she specifically chose to visit
her son's classroom because
he's always shown interest in
her profession. She wanted to
use this opportunity to show
his classmates what she does
for a living and make him
feel proud.
When Aída gave her School
Outreach presentation to
her son's fifth grade class
in March 2022, kids were
just going back to school
after 16 months of studying
from home. After that, they
had six months of hybrid
learning, where kids would
go to class online if COVID
cases resurged. That meant
she faced a unique challenge:
students weren't used to
being in the classroom
anymore. She wanted to
make sure she was keeping
their attention by making her
presentation extra fun.
Aída took her son's
classroom by storm with
a wide array of interactive
activities. She started by
introducing herself and
asking if they knew what a
translator was. Their answers
described an interpreter,
28 The ATA Chronicle | January/February 2023
Aída Carrazco assists students during an interactive comic
book translation activity at Instituto Thomas Jefferson in
Zapopan, Mexico, in 2022.
so she showed them the
differences between the two
professions. She then gave
examples of different areas of
specialization. After that, she
asked which languages they
spoke and if they had used
them to translate or interpret
for other people. " They told
me funny anecdotes from
family trips and friends'
visits where they had to
interpret for their parents or
grandparents, " Aída said.
Aída then split students
into teams. The students
translated the information
on a package of candy and
transcreated some jokes and
comics. " I brought three
different comics, each one
with a joke. In my winning
picture, I'm explaining
what transcreation is, and
why it's important to use
creativity while translating
this type of content. "
One team even translated
content about children and
the war in Ukraine. " With
these exercises, students
understood how translation
can help people, even
children, and that they can
find translated content
everywhere. They also
discovered the importance of
localization through funny
and awkward translation
examples, " she explained.
After working on
translation, Aída moved on
to showcase examples of
audiovisual translation. " I
showed students a video
explaining the differences
between dubbing for Spain
and for Mexico, " she said.
This piqued students'
curiosity and they asked
follow-up questions about
the differences between
dubbing and subtitling.
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