Success for the SAAM Project
This year, the SAAM Project was shortlisted for the prestigious Aurora Diversity and Equality Award at the ceremony held in Amsterdam, Holland. The SAAM project, which is led by Dr Carlos de Pablos-Ortega and run by UEA student volunteers, was ‘pipped at the post’ for the award, being given First Runner Up in its category.
The Diversity and Equality Award is granted each year by the Aurora Universities Network, to a relevant project from one of its 10 member universities throughout Europe. The main criteria of this award is to “identify and exchange good practices and advance the Aurora network’s vision on diversity”.
The volunteers are students from UEA and, as of this year, from the Universidad de Alcalá in Madrid, and has seen a marked increase in volunteer numbers, from an initial cohort of 6 in 2016, to the current number of 42 in 2019. Volunteers come from across HUM, sharing their work with visiting international students who are also part of the group. The SAAM project places significant emphasis on accessibility to the media, by providing subtitles for audio-visual materials for charitable and non-profit organisations who do not have the finances to provide access to their work. Students must discipline themselves to accurately relay for the partner, the information with absolute care and attention. Charities ensure their message is clear and accurate before using the student’s work, thus ensuring excellent standards of work by the students.
By being part of SAAM, students also enhance their own employability prospects which then adds value to the undergraduate degree programmes at UEA. By developing an understanding of professional standards, norms and translational ethics, using genuine materials challenges the students to elevate the quality of their translation and subtitling work. From a learning experience perspective, the project promotes students’ creativity as well as expanding their existing linguistic skills, in both their first and second languages. The charities acknowledge the work the volunteers do and Amy Travis, of Child Protection Toolkit USA for example, has stated that the SAAM project has saved her organisation approximately $15,000 of translation service fees, which in turn has helped them to reach a much wider audience, whilst simultaneously advancing their development timeline by 2 years.
This is not the first award that the SAAM project has received, as in 2017 it won the university-wide UEA Engagement Award. Then, as first runner up for a national award, SAAM was granted a special commendation by the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) in 2018.
By working with charitable and non-profit organisations, students become sensitized to their needs and acquire professional experience in the area of audio-visual translation, fulfilling the University’s Outreach aim of responding to the needs of the wider community. The project has established links between the University, local, national and international organisations.
