Saul Arteaga won 2009 Humanitarian Award at Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, Wisconsin
Arteaga founded Southern Wisconsin Translation and Interpreting Services in 2002. While representing his company or as an individual volunteer, Arteaga works with several groups to provide services to the community. Some of those include serving on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Committee to improve court interpretation: the Walworth County Workforce and Economic Development Board; working with the circuit court judges on the development of refugee language training for interpreters; and recently partnering with Marquette University to provide volunteer interpreters for their weekly legal clinic which offers free legal advice to the community.
Arteaga says he is honored to be named a Humanitarian because of the impact Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had on America and the world.
“He represents positive change – worldwide,” says Arteaga. “Receiving this award is a responsibility as well as an honor. This gives me motivation to keep doing what I am doing.”
Arteaga says his strongest connection with King is in his famous statement of “I have a dream.”
“Those four words are very powerful because it means that we, as human beings, can envision and dream – and dreams can happen if we pursue them,” says Arteaga. “With that quote, he showed us that change can happen. Maybe that change will happen right away, maybe that change will happen long after we are gone, but if we pursue those dreams they can become a reality.”
