Hours

To obtain the maximum benefit from your Practicum by observing and interpreting in a variety of settings, you may find it necessary to arrange your own transportation.

Documenting Hours

Before the semester begins, the Practicum Coordinator will provide each Practicum student a unique link to their individual Timesheet. Students are required to record their hours in that Timesheet.

Click the Timesheet Sample Template to view a model of what is sent to all students.

Any interpreting hours completed as part of another course besides practicum cannot be counted toward satisfying your required hours for the practicum course.

It is the student's responsibility to find and complete all of the required hours (see Minimum Required Hours below). During the Spring semester, you will be scheduled for Seminar II "lab" time on Wednesdays from 5-7:50 PM. This will be a dedicated time in your schedule to help you complete observation and interpreting hours. You are required to keep this time open as it may be used for panels or the Sorenson Synergy program. We also encourage you to work collaboratively with other Practicum students, your mentor, your Seminar instructor, and the Practicum Coordinator in order to successfully complete the required hours.

Minimum Required Hours

Practicum students are required to satisfy a minimum number of hours in the following categories:

Interpreting
Pro bono interpreting
Observation
Peer mentoring
Preparation
Supervision/Mentoring
Seminar

The tables below provide the breakdown by course.

2025 Program Hour Requirement Template

Interpreting Hours

Students may complete a maximum of 10% of the required interpreting hours prior to the start of the semester.

Interpreting hour requirements can be satisfied in the following settings:

Practicum site
Pro-bono assignments pre-approved by the BSI Practicum Coordinator
Department of Access Services (DAS) paid interpreting work
Students may interpret pre-recorded videos (maximum 20% per semester). All pre-recorded interpreting work must be captured and then critiqued by the mentor, peer mentor, BSI tutor, or other person as approved by the Seminar instructor.
Websites Pre-recorded Interpreting

Pro Bono Interpreting

Pro-Bono interpreting hours are defined as interpreting hours that students complete without payment. Pro-bono interpreting opportunities will be sent out by the Practicum Coordinator through our online dashboard. Once you have successfully registered for the Practicum course you will be automatically granted access to the dashboard. For more information on the process of receiving and accepting pro-bono interpreting opportunities please review the following training video in addition to the instructional PowerPoint. Any pro-bono interpreting opportunities found on your own or suggested by mentors must be pre-approved by your Seminar instructor or Practicum Coordinator.

Preparation Hours

Preparation hours are defined as any type of activity you do prior to an interpreting assignment that helps you be more successful.

Some examples of ways to earn preparation hours are:

Contacting the consumers
Reading PowerPoints, articles, books
Watching videos
Researching ASL/English terminology
Talking with teamer(s) or other interpreters

Observation

Observations are defined as observing a working interpreter actively engaged in the act of interpreting or conversations that occur between the observed interpreter and student. Students may complete a maximum of 10% of the required observation hours prior to the start of the semester.

Please refer to the Protocol for Successful Observations to support you in the observation process.

Please refer to the DC-S Observation Case Report template form to guide your observations.

Settings

By the time you have completed Practicum I and II, you must have observed at least five hours each in four of the following settings:

Community
K-12
Medical
Postsecondary
VRS

Approved Observations & Settings

Observations of mentor
Observations of other professional interpreters’ work in the Practicum setting
Observations of other professional interpreters recommended by the mentor who work outside the Practicum setting
Observations cannot be conducted of interpreters in classes you are registered for as a student
Observations will only be counted if permission is obtained by the interpreter and an attempt has been made by the student to schedule a pre and post discussion.
Observation of recorded interpretations (maximum 10%) All recorded interpreting observations must be captured and then discussed with the mentor, peer mentor, BSI tutor, or other person as approved by the Seminar instructor.
If approved, Sorenson Synergy Program will be reinstated for observations and a minimum of 5 hours will be required

Pre-Recorded Observations

Supervision/Mentoring

Mentors are expected to meet one-on-one with their mentee a minimum of 30 hours per semester (two hours per week). During these weekly Supervision meetings, you will discuss such topics as:

1. Analysis and discussion of your progress toward skill development
2. Effective interpretation related to your practicum goals or other considerations (e.g., message equivalence, affect, sign production, semantics, meaning transfer, vocabulary selection, ethical problems, interpreting technique)
3. Critique of your interpretation (live or pre-recorded)
4. Ethical decision-making
5. Networking
6. Career development
7. Professionalism

For additional information, please refer to the Supervision page.

Other

Hours earned that do not fit or go above the categories mentioned above.

Examples of "other" activities can include:

Scheduling
Invoicing
Meetings
In-Service Trainings
Workshops
Sorenson Synergy Program
Additional Observations
Peer Mentoring
Other activities approved by seminar instructor

Peer Mentoring Guidance:

For the interpreting profession, mentoring has traditionally looked much like an apprenticeship: a master practitioner dispenses knowledge to a novice in order to mold them into an effective professional. The structure was mentor-focused and the novice was seen as the primary beneficiary. This paradigm is highly effective in regions of the country where there is a critical mass of mentors and of mentees who share similar educational backgrounds and professional parlance. However, interpreter educators are often faced with a much different reality. Practitioners seeking professional growth can, as a group, represent the widest possible spectrum of professional skills, ethnic/cultural backgrounds, work experience, and progress in the credentialing process.

The Peer Mentoring Model (PMM) was designed in an effort to address the diverse needs of such a population. The goal is to support individual skill and career development, as well as to create a community of learning that can be utilized for continued professional evolution.

For additional information on the Peer Mentoring Model, see "Peer Mentoring: What is THAT?" on page 77 of the Proceedings of the 15th National Convention of the Conference of Interpreter Trainers.

Seminar

You will participate in a weekly two-hour Seminar with several other students and the Seminar instructor. You are expected to arrive prepared and to actively participate. The Seminar covers a variety of topics:

Reflective practice applying DCS (case presentation or thematic supervision)
Cover letter, resume, references, interviewing, rate negotiating
Topics from the textbook
Strategies for diverse communication modes and preferences, including deafblind consumers, consumers with other disabilities, and consumers who have atypical language
Other topics as assigned