All in the translation

Graduate honored as Presidential Scholar for ‘Spanish Language Project’

TOWAMENCIN >> As Catherine Cavanaugh donned her cap and gown and walked through North Penn High School’s Crawford Stadium on Saturday, she was leaving behind more than just memories.

Her impact on fellow students will live on for years, in the form of her “Spanish Translation Project” meant to help build bridges between languages.

“I love this project. In a weird way, I’m so happy that I was told ‘no,’ because without that initial rejection, there wouldn’t be any of this,” said Cavanaugh.

Early in 2020, Cavanaugh was a junior at North Penn High School involved in numerous extracurriculars including the student’s English Language Learners, or ELL club, helping fellow students learn English as their second language. As part of the high school superintendent’s council, Cavanaugh and fellow students would talk with administrators about ongoing issues, including support for those still learning the language.

“Some students knew minimal English, did not have an aide with them, and the teacher who was teaching the class did not know their language. So there was this big language gap,” Cavanaugh said.

“Completing assignments for mandatory classes, like health class or science class, could become much more difficult for them,” she said.

After seeing little action from administrators, Cavanaugh said she was talking with family, including one side of her family that’s from Nicaragua, which led to an idea.

“North Penn is such a great community, and yet this is an aspect where we could use so much improvement. And sitting there with the family, they gave me the idea: ‘Well, why don’t you make something?’”

That idea, combined with long talks with fellow students and high school Spanish teacher Señor Alejandro Vidal, led to what is now the “Spanish Translation Project” — a website linking students in need of translation services for specialized texts like those courses, with those fluent enough to offer that translation.

“The 10th and 11th grade health curriculum, we completely translated, including the textbook work. All of biology, all of the common core for kids who would need to take a Keystone exam, and all of chemistry,” Cavanaugh said.

“We just translated the entire Constitution, with guides for the citizenship test and Pennsylvania state civics test each high school student needs to do. And we’re looking into a couple of other content areas for next year,” she said.

Global reach

From the start last year, and since a profile in January in the high school’s Knight Crier, the site has now grown to reach well beyond the district’s borders.

“What I think is so cool about this is that it’s not just a local project. It’s not just helping people at North Penn,” Cavanaugh said.

“It has reach now in 15 states and five countries, and we have about 300 continuing users. I’m able to track, and kind of pinpoint where they are — there’s definitely a big community,” she said.

And that community will soon expand: Vidal plans to teach in Santa Fe, New Mexico starting this fall, while Cavanaugh will

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAVANAUGH FAMILY North Penn High School senior Catherine Cavanaugh wears a medal commemorating her selection as one of three Pennsylvania students chosen as a finalist in the U.S. Department of Education’s U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.