Skilled 4 Work: Mom heads back to work, becomes Spanish interpreter

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Carolina Sanchez is originally from Chihuahua, Mexico. She married a New Mexican man, raised two children and then wanted to go back to work.

"At the beginning, I thought, no, I’m not going to be able to do this," Sanchez said. "This is too hard."

She thought the challenges of getting trained for the new gig would be too much.

"You know, I’m a minority, I am a woman, I thought I was maybe too old to start all over, but no, they could do it," Sanchez said. "Just put the effort and the time to learn."

But then she found the CNM Spanish Interpreter Program. Sanchez said it was affordable and her year and a half of schooling went virtual during the pandemic, but great teachers helped her on her way to finding a job interpreting for UNM Hospital.

"Just for the people to understand how important it is to have an interpreter," Sanchez said. "We do over 150,000 interpretations per year at the UNM Hospital."

Now she helps patients understand what’s happening to them during an unprecedented public health crisis.

For more information on the program, click here.