Facing growing demand for bilingual communication, Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City is launching the state's first academic program to train Spanish-English translators and interpreters.

More than 100 students are pre-enrolled in the first classes, which start in January. The full complement of courses for Technical Spanish: Translation and Interpretation will be available in the fall, said Tim Faltyn, assistant vice president of academic affairs.

"We've been overwhelmed. There were literally three or four dozen inquiries a day at first," Faltyn said.

"I was very surprised and excited all at the same time. It gave us the ability to develop a program that would set the standard," he said.

Faltyn organized an advisory board of interpreters, translators and those who use their services to determine whether there was a need and, if so, how to proceed.

"Resoundingly, what we heard was there was a need for this. We found there are a lot of people out there interpreting without the skills to do it effectively," Faltyn said.

Students will take classes in Spanish, English, interpreting, translation, ethics and business practices. They can choose among electives that include interpreting for legal, health care and law enforcement settings.

Because fluency in both Spanish and English is required, Faltyn expects the first graduates to be native Spanish speakers — perhaps second- or third-generation immigrants.