Agencies

 
 

Translation and Interpretation Services

Our Volunteers

Our volunteers are bilingual and multilingual Cornell students whose language proficiency has been certified by Cornell language professors. Prior to joining the program, all of our volunteers sign a Volunteer Contract and undergo thorough training that emphasizes the importance of confidentiality, conduct, and cultural frameworks.

 
 
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Our Database

Upon completion of the certification and training process, all of volunteers' contact information and availability are posted onto an online database only accessible to community agencies that have completed our Agency Training Session and have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

Our Services

Once added to our database, our volunteers provide translation and interpretation services in a wide variety of languages for community agencies both on and off-campus. Our volunteers serve to bridge language and cultural barriers in both emergency and non-emergency situations.

 

Disclaimers

 

TIP does not provide translations for legal documents and does not authenticate legal documents. Although TIP offers translation and interpretation services for a wide variety of emergency and non-emergency situations, TIP is a student-run program and is not legally certified to provide translations for legal documents such as the following:

  • licenses
  • certificates
  • contracts
  • leases
  • transcripts
  • diplomas
  • identification documents
  • immunization records

TIP does not certify volunteers as American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters. Since the founding of the program in 2000, TIP has always referred any emergency and non-emergency requests for ASL interpreters to professional American Sign Language interpretation agencies as per the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

TIP's services are free for the community and are not meant to replace community members' linguistic capabilities. TIP advocates for the use of local language communities as the program would best be serving its mission statement through the empowerment of local communities.

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TIP volunteers are not professional translators/interpreters. They are only able to accept translation/interpretation requests through the program or the Public Service Center. Although all of our volunteers have attended our Volunteer Training Session and their language skills have been confirmed by the instructors for their respective languages, their translations/interpretations cannot be said to be official in any way.

If you are in need of a professionally certified translator or interpreter, we recommend you contact a professional translation/interpretation agency.
However, please note that TIP works independently and does not work with other translation/interpretation agencies. As such, we are unable to recommend any services.