|
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
 Translating Her Passion
Russian Alumna Turns Language Passion into Successful
Translation Company
Inna
Kassatkina came to the United States for one year in 1990 as
part of a Russia-U.S. joint business venture in Orange
County. That venture never got off the ground. Sixteen years
later, Kassatkina finds herself less than five miles from
the campus that quickly became home.
"I’ve
never really left Orange County; I don’t think I’ve moved
more than five miles in any direction from UCI (since
1990)," she says.
Kassatkina, co-founder and president of Global Language
Solutions in Newport Beach, had no intention of making
Orange County home. "I had never really planned to spend
more than a year in the States, but I fell in love with
southern California," she says. "At the end of that year, I
was accepted to UCI."
At the start of the 1991-92
academic year, Kassatkina
joined UCI as its first
Russian transfer student and was able to complete the
linguists degree she had started at Moscow State University
in just more than a year.
As an international student, her tuition was at the higher
out-of-state rate.
"I
had to pay the out-of-state tuition, which was a huge amount
of money. So I tried to do my coursework as fast as I could.
I had seven or eight classes during any given quarter," she
says.
Impressed by
her professors and the enthusiasm with which they taught the
fundamentals of language sticks out in Kassatkina's memory,
but so does something else: The
UCI cafeteria. "Don’t laugh at that," she says. "The
selection of food was so great compared to what I was
exposed to back home. It was night and day."
Today,
Kassatkina leads a company of 12 full-time staff members and
more than 100 language translation professionals that she
co-founded in 1994 with a fellow countrywoman.
In the early
years, GLS offered basic Russian-to-English-to-Russian
translation services. By 1998 the company expanded its
services
to those of a full-service agency that offers
written translation services, interpretative services in
more than 100 languages and consulting advice to local and
several national Fortune 500 companies.
"We have a very strong presence in the life sciences and
healthcare industries," Kassatkina explains. "Our goal is to
grow our services in two or three additional areas such as
financial services and the legal industry and to grow our
staff to at least 20-25 people. It's important that we
continue to be not only a highly professional environment
for those people to work in but also be a fun company to
work for that cares about its people as individuals and not
just as employees that come to work for us."
Community is
something that Kassatkina values outside of her office as
well. "So
many UCI alumni stay in Orange County which shows the
strength of our community. I just recently became a member
(of the alumni association) – and that’s one piece of advice
I’d give to students and alumni – stay involved with the UCI
community, especially if you are staying in the area."
|
