If you thought the language requirement at Penn would never come in handy, think again.
Several Penn students spent election day yesterday offering language assistance to Spanish-speaking Philadelphia voters at voting locations across the city.
The project was organized through a collaboration between the city of Philadelphia and Campus Philly, a non-profit organization that partners with schools in the area to expose students to life in greater Philadelphia.
College senior Dave Weinreb, one of about 100 students from Philadelphia-area colleges to volunteer his skills, was stationed at a polling location at Dough Boy Pizza in North Philadelphia from 1:30 until 8 p.m.
His job was to interpret conversations between the Spanish-speaking voters and the election officials about any questions the voter had on voting procedures. Weinreb was allowed to go into the voting booth with any voter who requested assistance.
"I feel very passionately about naturalization and being able to empower new immigrants to our country," said Weinreb. "I thought this would be a really interesting way to contribute."
All interpreters were instructed to interpret in a nonpartisan manner at all times, emphasized Jennifer Burns, chief of staff of the Philadelphia Law Department.
Organizers targeted polling locations around which there is a large concentration of Spanish-speaking residents, senior director of Campus Philly Melanie Rago said
"It is our hope that everyone who comes to vote on Election Day, regardless of their ability to read or write English, has the ability to do so," Stephanie Tipton, assistant to the city finance director, wrote in an e-mail.
According to Rago, more than 300 students responded with interest to the original call for interpreters.
The students who ultimately agreed to participate underwent a two-hour training session last Saturday.
Each trainee first sat for an oral exam so that the trainers could "get a sense of the prospective interpreter's language skills," said Health Federation of Philadelphia representative Claire Jones, who organized the session.
The students also took a vocabulary quiz on specific election terminology, numbers and dates, she added.
Jones explained that the students who received high enough scores went to a training session which laid out a "basic code of ethics," the role of the interpreter and tips for handling difficult situations.
"I just hope to facilitate the Democratic process by helping anybody who is eligible to vote regardless of their ability to speak or read or write English," said College senior and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist Ryan Benjamin, who was stationed at an elementary school in North Philadelphia yesterday afternoon. "Any citizen of the U.S. should be able to vote."
