LUNA offers a paid fellowship that lasts six months. During the first few weeks, fellows go through onboarding with the company. During onboarding, the fellows will learn about every department in our agency ASL, spoken language, and translation. For the next three to four weeks, our fellows will observe staff interpreters in a variety of jobs, including medical, vocational rehabilitation, educational, legal, and conference interpreting. After that, the fellows will have three to four weeks where they are the ones interpreting, and our staff interpreters observe and provide support as needed. After that, fellows start working independently in the community while also interpreting teamed jobs with our staff members so that they still receive intentional mentoring and support. As the fellowship progresses, support lessens with the intent that by the time they reach the six-month mark, they are completely independent and ready to become a contractor.

LUNA also welcomes practicum students from various Interpreter Education Programs throughout the country. When we receive practicum students, we follow their IEP's required hours. Our goal with practicum students is that they have a primary mentor but also have the opportunities to work with multiple staff during their time with us.

• Student Interpreters (Internship/Practicum)
• Novice Interpreters (Induction/Onboarding)

For practicum students, it is best to reach out a few months before the start of practicum. We have had practicum during the fall, spring, and summer trimesters.

Our practicum is typically held twice a year January and July. It is best to get in contact with the program director a month or two before to see if we have any availabilities for the upcoming cohort.

Practicum follows the duration specified by the Interpreter Education Program. In the past, practicum has lasted from ten to fourteen weeks.

The fellowship lasts for six months.

• In person/onsite
• Remote

We provide services in Indiana (IN), Ohio (OH), Kentucky, (KY), and Illinois (IL).

During the fellowship, students would be paid for eight hours a day regardless of what they were doing that day (observing, preparing for an assignment, or interpreting). If the fellow decided to accept a job after hours, they would then be paid at their contract rate.

During the practicum, we primarily go off the requirements given to us by the Interpreter Training Program. If we notice a specific skill set that needs to be focused on, we are intentional about providing opportunities so that the student can develop that area.

Our fellowship is self-led. At the beginning of the fellowship, the director of the ASL department, the interpreter manager, and one of our staff interpreters sit down with the fellow to discuss what they would like to get out of the program. Based on what the fellow says, we are intentional about assigning them jobs that will help them gain skills in the areas that they selected. The skill sets and opportunities that are decided upon by the fellow also guide discussions with the mentors.

During both the fellowship and the practicum, students have access to three Deaf and Hard of Hearing staff members that can be utilized for language mentoring. Language mentoring sessions are typically one-hour meetings once a week. These meetings have three forms; either it is a chat with the employee about the fellowship and what is going on in their life, or, a conversation about the employees' job and responsibilities, or, it is about a predetermined topic such as medical vocabulary or accounting vocabulary.