UofL’s American Sign Language Interpreting Studies Program and Vincennes University Begin Partnership to Expand Access to 4-Year Degrees for Transfer Students

By Stephanie Godward, Communications and Marketing Director, College of Arts & Sciences  

A new partnership between the University of Louisville’s American Sign Language Interpreting Studies (ASLIS) program and Vincennes University is creating opportunities for students to complete bachelor’s degrees with the added benefit of paying in-state tuition. 

The brand new 2+2 transfer agreement means students can complete two years at Vincennes University in Indiana, then transfer to UofL’s ASLIS program within the department of Classical and Modern Languages to complete the final two years needed to earn a bachelor’s degree. 

Sonja Smith, Assistant Professor Term, Director of Undergraduate Studies, ASL Interpreting Studies at UofL, said this gives UofL the opportunity to continue to support the deaf community. 

“I am excited about this because Vincennes has a very long history and a fabulous reputation for developing ASL-proficient signers, so being able to take the fundamentals and foundational information they have taught and then help grow interpreters who will stay relatively local is important,” Smith said. "Both Indiana and Kentucky are facing extreme interpreter shortages, and this is one way that we can help to address that and make sure the deaf community is served for the foreseeable future.” 

Students from Vincennes who transfer to UofL can also take advantage of the border benefit program while advancing their path to sitting for the national exam. 

“UofL offers the border benefit to Indiana residents, meaning that they are able to pay in-state tuition instead of paying out of state tuition, as many other 4-year universities would require. There is a cost, but it’s not an out of state cost for these students,” Smith said. 

It saves transfer students money, while helping them to move forward in their goal of becoming interpreters. 

“You have to have a bachelor’s degree in order to sit for the national exam. If it’s not a bachelor’s degree, it does not satisfy the requirements to sit for the national exam, and national certification is the end all goal of interpreters to make sure you meet the minimum requirement to provide services to the deaf community. So, the difference between a certificate program and a bachelor’s degree is huge,” Smith said. 

For more information on this new partnership, contact Smith at sonja.smith@louisville.edu.