My name is Eric Christensen and I am a bilingual former Peace Corps Volunteer with an MA degree in Middle Eastern Studies, a BA in English, diverse experience as a translator including over two years of experience working with clients and attorneys at an immigrant legal services program in Chicago, and experience researching and writing grant proposals for international health care and human rights programs. I have been a member of the American Translator’s Association since 2005.

After writing for several campus publications at St. John’s University in Minnesota, tutoring students at the writing center, and earning my BA in English, I joined the U.S. Peace Corps and taught English for two years in Jordan. Living and working in a Bedouin village taught me to be creative in overcoming communication barriers and managing interpersonal relationships among faculty and students as well as other members of the community. Through two years of total immersion in the language and culture, I achieved fluency in Jordanian Arabic, and in 2002 I enrolled in the University of Chicago’s Middle Eastern Studies MA program. My language, writing, research, and analytical skills developed throughout my graduate coursework, particularly as I completed my thesis, which required original research in Arabic as well as English source texts. I was awarded a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grant for an intensive summer Arabic course, which allowed me to complete three years of Modern Standard Arabic within the two-year degree framework; I maintained a 4.0 GPA in my Arabic classes throughout.

Upon completing graduate school in September of 2004, I began working as the Administrator of International Programs at Heartland Alliance, a service-based human rights organization headquartered in Chicago. As the main point of contact for information on overseas projects, I maintained databases of donors to specific country programs and managed relationships with individual and institutional donors and partner organizations. I prepared informative brochures and maintained web pages about Heartland’s international programs. Further, as the lead for agency staff and independent contractors traveling overseas, I would arrange international travel and accommodations, health and emergency evacuation coverage for staff, and reimbursement of salary and employee business expenses, all the while ensuring compliance with restrictions on the usage of federal and private grant funds.

In addition to supporting staff traveling internationally, I would research opportunities for Heartland Alliance to partner with non-governmental organizations working on health care and human rights issues overseas. I monitored foundation websites for open requests for proposals, obtaining and analyzing IRS form 990’s from organizations of interest. Writing a winning proposal meant conducting interviews with clinical and administrative program staff, meetings with the communications and development team, and extensive research into reports released by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and UN agencies, international human rights and development organizations, and foreign governments. During my tenure, Heartland Alliance submitted applications ranging from tightly-focused concept papers to fully developed proposals for a domestic violence shelter in Jordan, legal services for victim witnesses in Congolese war crimes trials, housing for Mayan survivors of human rights abuses in Guatemala, and other international programs.

Working closely with Heartland Alliance’s immigrant legal assistance program – the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) – often afforded me challenging and educational opportunities to translate, interpret, and advocate for Arabic-speaking refugees and asylum seekers. I gained a level of familiarity with the immigration and asylum process while interpreting during intake interviews, translating affidavits and personal documents, and attending legal proceedings. I worked closely with an Iraqi family in Chicago who had lost a family member in Baghdad, assassinated for working as a translator with coalition forces; I maintained an extensive file on the case, collaborated on a humanitarian parole application for the deceased’s immediate family in Baghdad, arranged interviews and letters of support from the imam of a Chicago-area mosque as well as members of Illinois Congressional Rep. Jan Schakowsky's staff, and eventually coordinated with a Chicago Tribune reporter who wrote an article on the Iraqi refugee issue, highlighting the family and Heartland Alliance’s efforts.

Also since graduating from the University of Chicago I have continued to work with a former professor, Dr. Farouk A. W. Mustafa, as an apprentice Arabic literary translator, proofreading and editing translated manuscripts for publication as well as producing my own translations. For my contributions, I have received acknowledgement in two translated novels published by the American University in Cairo Press. During the summer of 2007 I had the opportunity to work as an editor on an English-language short story collection with Chicago-based author Dina Rabadi. I have been a member of the American Translator’s Association since 2005, and am currently working and volunteering in Minneapolis as a freelance translator and interpreter, in addition to working full-time as a professional proofreader and editor at Rust Consulting, Inc., a class action settlement administration firm.