Translate-a-thon 2025: November 7-8
Keynote Panel: From Ann Arbor to the World: The Power of Language in Action
Join us for an inspiring panel presentation featuring four University of Michigan alumni who have successfully leveraged their diverse language skills in the professional world. Hear firsthand how these Wolverines turned their language expertise into real-world impact, working with translation and interpretation across various fields. They'll share their unique experiences, challenges, and success stories using languages to bridge cultures and communicate across the globe.
This is a must-attend event for anyone studying languages, interested in translation/interpretation, or planning a career with an international focus. Come be inspired by the possibilities that await when you make languages your superpower!
Meet our panelists
Emmanuel Orozco Castellanos
Emmanuel was born and raised in Jalisco, Mexico, and has lived in Michigan for the past seven years. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in International Studies and a double minor in Latin American Studies and Critical Translation Studies, where he also studied Portuguese and French. His translation work is in English and Spanish and encompasses legal translation, migrant story-telling, and creative non-fiction. He was a fellow at Perseus Strategies, where he contributed to the Organization of American States’ first-ever report on the Responsibility to Protect. His work includes the development of Translating Michigan, a public humanities initiative celebrating immigrant communities through storytelling and research, his later project being Muralism, Multilingualism and Migration in Southwest Detroit.
Emmanuel also served as a paralegal at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, where he assisted attorneys representing unaccompanied children in federal immigration custody. Most recently, he earned an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies as a Rhodes Scholar. He is currently completing a Master of Public Policy at the University of Oxford.
Peter Matarweh
Peter Matarweh graduated from the University of Michigan in 2023 with a degree in Comparative Literature and International Studies. He also completed a minor in Translation. He is currently a Lecturer of Legal English at the University of Montpellier School of Law and Political Science in Montpellier, France.
As the child of Arab immigrants, Peter grew up speaking a dialect of Arabic alongside English. He discovered his love for languages in high school, taking Spanish, French, and German, and continued studying Spanish and French at U of M.
Peter has been working in the language-teaching and translation realms for years, having volunteered to teach ESL to immigrants and working as a foreign language tutor at U of M throughout his four years of school. He received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship grant to teach English at a high school in Libourne, France. He has also used his language skills to work with immigrants and refugees as a paralegal at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.
Kelsey Trotta
Kelsey Trotta is an award-nominated culinary, media, and marketing translator specialized in translating the language of baking and fashion from Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and French to English. Her previous work has been featured in The New York Times, Christopher Kimball's Milk Street TV, and National Geographic.
Kelsey has established her own translation agency: Trotta Translations where she works as a translator and interpreter specializing in marketing and culinary translation; menus, cookbooks, restaurant websites, and subtitles for television shows. She also translates marketing materials for international companies looking to expand into the American market. She is currently working on a few books including one on the history of Italian pastries and one on style for language providers that is tailored to helping people dress for their target market.
"I can’t speak highly enough about the quality of instruction from every professor I have and can say that I use what I was taught during my time at Michigan every day in my professional career."
Omar Mahmood
Omar Mahmood worked for 4 years as a professional medical interpreter in the Detroit area while attending medical school at Wayne State University. He contracted with the Henry Ford Health System through Multilanguage Services, LLC and Global Interpreting, logging thousands of hours working for patients and communities who speak Spanish, Arabic, and Hindustani.
During his medical school education, he founded Yes, No, Fingers A Clinical Language Guide for healthcare professionals. This guide presents simple, direct questions that are most crucial in taking a patient’s history. They can usually be answered with a yes, a no, or a show of fingers. Therefore, an individual need not know the target language to take a patient history. Although not meant for conversation, the questions in this guide help narrow down the relevant symptoms and potential causes of the HPI.
Translate-a-thon 2024: October 18-19
Keynote: AI in Translation: For Better or For Worse
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the translation and localization industry, but the question remains: Can AI fully replace human translators, or is it simply another tool in the translator’s toolkit? In this presentation, we will explore both the perils and potential of AI in translation, offering a balanced look at the technology’s impact on the future of language services.
This session will provide a deep dive into how AI tools like neural machine translation (NMT) and real-time speech recognition systems are revolutionizing translation workflows, driving efficiency, and reducing costs. We’ll examine successful case studies, such as the EU’s hybrid AI-human approach, and eBay’s AI-powered global expansion strategy.
However, the presentation also highlights the significant risks AI poses: from biased outputs and hallucinations to data security concerns and cultural insensitivity. Through real-world examples—such as Facebook’s infamous mistranslation leading to legal consequences and Google Translate’s gender biases—we uncover why human expertise remains critical in ensuring quality and nuance.
Join us for this thought-provoking session that answers the fundamental question: Will AI take over the translation industry, or is the future of language services one of collaboration between human linguists and intelligent machines?
Speaker
Bridget Hylak, CT, CI, MTC is a 30+ year language industry veteran, international speaker, consultant, author and trainer, working hard to bridge the gap between silo’d industry sectors. She is a globally recognized industry expert recently interviewed by TIME Magazine and NPR, has co-authored a guidance on Machine Interpreting for the federal government, and is a sought-after industry expert who serves on numerous committees in the language, language technology, AI and DEIA arenas.
Hylak is a regular contributor to Multilingual magazine, serves as Chief Industry Strategist for two language industry startups named to Slator’s “50 under 50“ list for 2023, and has consulted on several leading language technology tools. She is a past Administrator of the ATA Language Technology Division, currently copilots as Assistant Administrator, serves on ATA’s Interpretation Professional Advisory Committee (IPAC) and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Language Monitoring and Evaluation Team (MET), and is a founding member of I-LEAD, the International Language, Equity and Accessibility Drivers.
A Stanford University graduate with degrees in Broadcast Journalism, and Spanish and Portuguese, she has also worked and completed post-graduate studies abroad in Argentina and Moscow. A certified court interpreter and ATA certified translator, her current efforts focus primarily on AI ethics and language technology consulting as Senior Consultant with TongueTEK Language Consulting.
Translate-a-Thon 2022
Translate-a-thon 2018
Translate-a-thon was a big success! 174 volunteers came together to translate with us over the course of the marathon -and beyond! We will be organizing more translation activities, so keep your eyes open for announcements. And if you haven't already joined the Language Bank, sign up today!
A BIG Thank You to our sponsors:
Translate-a-thon 2017: October 20-22
The Translate-a-thon is a short, intense, community-driven event when volunteers interested in translation come together to translate! We have collected videos, websites, and print from museums, non-profits, and university organizations… or bring your own project! You can work in teams or on your own.
The Translate-a-thon is organized by the Language Resource Center in collaboration with the Department of Comparative Literature.
Translate-a-thon 2016: October 28-30
The Translate-a-thon is a short, intense, community-driven event when volunteers interested in translation come together to translate! We have collected videos, websites, and print from museums, non-profits, and university organizations… or bring your own project! You can work in teams or on your own.
The marathon will be Friday 5pm-9pm, Saturday 9am-9pm, Sunday 9am-1pm (while volunteers are encouraged to come for the entire weekend, it is not a requiment!).
The Translate-a-thon is organized by the Language Resource Center in collaboration with the Department of Comparative Literature.
