TIP Agencies are community organizations, groups, or departments that TIP partners with to provide free translation and interpretation services in accordance with our social justice mission.

 
 

Translation and Interpretation Services

Our Volunteers

Our volunteers are bilingual and multilingual Cornell students whose language proficiency has been approved 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.

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.

HOW TO BECOME A TIP AGENCY

STEPS

1. Contact Us

If you are an organization in need of translation and interpretation services, please email us at translator@cornell.edu

2. Attend an Agency Training Session

After you contact us, we will email you details on how to attend an Agency Training Session.

For your reference, our remaining Agency Training Sessions of the semester are:

  • Friday, April 11, 2025 1:30 PM
  • Thursday, May 1, 2025 10:00 AM
  • We may be able to schedule an one-on-one session if none of these times work

3. Onboarding

After completion of the training session, your organization will sign the Memorandum of Understanding. After you have been onboarded as an official TIP agency, you will be able to request translation and interpretation services.

DISCLAIMERS

1. 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.

2. TIP volunteers are not professional translators/interpreters. They are only able to accept translation/interpretation requests through the program or the Language Resource 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.

3. 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. We aim to foster inclusivity, cultural understanding, and meaningful community engagement.

4. If you are in need of a professionally certified translator or interpreter, we recommend that you contact a reputable professional agency for assistance and quality service.

5. Please note that TIP operates independently and does not collaborate with other translation or interpretation agencies. As such, we are unable to recommend any external services.

6. 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