UK Confucius Institute Translation Team Wins KWLA Award
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 28, 2020) — The University of Kentucky Confucius Institute (UKCI) was recognized Sept. 19 by the Kentucky World Language Association (KWLA) for its translation work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sara Meredith, immediate past president of KWLA, announced Gov. Andy Beshear’s #TeamKentucky Language Access Team, which includes UKCI’s Translation Team, as winners of the 2020 Amici Linguarum (Friends of Languages) Award during KWLA’s live awards ceremony.
“They are working to build a Kentucky where every resident, new or lifelong, feels welcome, at home, empowered, and included,” Meredith said, reading the nomination letter.
The honor recognizes an individual or organization not directly involved in teaching world languages that contributed to the profession.
Gov. Beshear and his communications team created the Language Access Team to provide the public with access to official communications in their language, thus saving lives, protecting people’s health, and minimizing the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and schools.
In partnership with RADIOLEX, Gov. Beshear’s office began providing translated summaries of every press conference and detailed informational flyers in more than 20 languages. UKCI’s Translation Team, Huajing Maske, executive director of UKCI and the Office of China Initiatives, Shasha Wu, Guilin Zhang and Lei Zhao, contributed to this mass effort.
Since March, UKCI’s Translation Team has continued to provide daily case information updates, audio summaries and public service announcements at teamkentuckytranslations.com.
“For the past six months, you have made sure every Kentuckian hears life-saving public health guidance,” Beshear said, addressing the Language Access Team’s translators in a pre-recorded video during the live awards ceremony. “You’ve donated hundreds of hours to protect your neighbors from COVID-19, sometimes working in the middle of the night or before the sun comes up so we can share information as quickly as possible. You are helping our people heal and rebuild.
“Most importantly, you’ve made sure that every person in our Commonwealth knows they are a part of Team Kentucky and that we will get through this together.”
This year marks the third KWLA award for UKCI.
UKCI’s K-12 Coordinator Carrie Wheeler won a KWLA award last year, receiving the 2019 Outstanding Administrator Award, which honors a school administrator who has “demonstrated exemplary support of world language learning and teaching at his/her institution, community or in the state.”
Maske received the Amici Linguarum (Friend of Languages) Award in 2014 for her work positioning UKCI as a leader in serving Kentucky and the Commonwealth’s global competency efforts.
The mission of the UK Confucius Institute is to serve the university and to serve Kentucky. These awards are a testament to UKCI’s work in community engagement, which is an important component of the university’s land-grant mission.
Since its inauguration, the institute has positioned itself as a conduit of UK’s China initiatives and created many successful partnerships between colleges at UK and Chinese universities. As noted above, the UK Confucius Institute has also played a valuable role in Kentucky’s K-12 Chinese language and cultural education.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.