Ad Astra, Inc., 8701 Georgia Avenue Suite 808, Silver Spring, MD (2026)

09/02/2026

Language, belonging, and community

🎙️ EP. 58. In this conversation, Elena Petrova sits down with Claudia Maria Menendez, the Equity & Inclusion Officer for the City of Fort Collins, CO. They discuss what happens when people are finally understood in their own language, and how belonging grows in the communities most often left out, something we both give and receive.

👉🏽 Claudia Menendez is the City of Fort Collins' Equity and Inclusion Officer, focused on equity-centered policy, language access, and community advocacy. Her career spans executive leadership, public education, and international development, with past roles as a Family Engagement Specialist, Spanish Literacy Teacher, and Cultural Mediator. She holds a master's in Education Equity and Cultural Diversity from the University of Colorado Boulder and a bachelor's from the University of Calgary.

We also talk about:
🔸 Why belonging is a two-way street, something you receive and something you contribute to
🔸 The difference between translating information and actually making someone feel heard
🔸 What it costs to live in a language that is not fully your own
🔸 How a community built its own communication network when the official channels fell short

🎧 The full conversation is out now:
🔴 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dpid9rZw
🟢 Spotify: https://shorturl.at/rEE2w
⚫ Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/WZUEv
🔵 Amazon Music: https://shorturl.at/2Sy8I

09/01/2026

We are currently seeking on-site interpreters for assignments in the Maryland area. If you speak Vietnamese or Twi, these roles are an excellent opportunity to use your language skills and support your local community.

You´ll provide in-person interpretation between English and the target language.

Requirements:
· Must be authorized to work in the U.S.
· Must be 18+ years old
· Ability to commute to Maryland for onsite assignments
· Willingness to complete a drug screening and background check

No prior interpreting experience? Not a problem; we offer free training and orientation sessions!

Apply now:
Vietnamese: https://lnkd.in/dYQbuXTj
Twi: https://lnkd.in/dEaUqegZ

Or send your resume to [email protected] and include the position you are applying for as the email subject line.

08/31/2026

August 31 is the International Day for People of African Descent.

It's a day to honor the cultural, social, economic, and political contributions of the African diaspora, and to recommit to eliminating discrimination in all its forms. This year's observance carries the theme "Expanding the Human Rights of People of African Descent," part of the Second International Decade for People of African Descent (2025–2034) and its call for recognition, justice, and development.

For us, this day sits close to the heart of our work. In a recent Connected Conversations episode, Sheriff Issaka, Founder of the African Languages Lab, reminded us that throughout history, when one group set out to oppress another, one of the first things they went for was the language. Taking a people's language has always been a way of taking their place in the world.

Which is why the opposite matters just as much. Making sure every person can understand and be understood, in their own language, is part of the long work of recognition and dignity this day honors. No language left behind. No person either.

To every community keeping their language alive, and everyone building so that no one is left out of the future.

Video source: EP. 55 with Sheriff Issaka - Connected Conversations Podcast.

08/28/2026

Most leaders are wary of anonymity. Kyle Venn thinks that caution is misplaced.

In our latest episode of Connected Conversations, hosted by Elena Petrova, we sat down with Kyle Venn, CEO of Yik Yak, for a conversation about what anonymity does to honesty. He argues that anonymity is a practical tool for honest feedback, whereby, by his account, most of what people share is constructive, and connects it to something every manager knows: people speak more freely when their name is off it.

After watching this episode, you will come away with a sharper way to think about the platforms your own community lives on, and a set of questions worth asking before you trust any of them.

Tune into the full episode with Kyle Venn:
🔴 YouTube: https://youtu.be/-HM4uQ2ebq0
🟢 Spotify: https://shorturl.at/tLUol
⚫ Apple Podcast: https://shorturl.at/7gueU
🔵 Amazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Hzmu

About Kyle:
Kyle Venn is a tech entrepreneur and product leader with a computer science background from Northeastern University, currently CEO of Yik Yak, one of the most recognizable anonymous social platforms for college students. He previously held engineering and leadership roles at Vimeo, Intuit, and PayPal. As CEO, he is focused on moving social media beyond passive scrolling toward meaningful, real-world connection, introducing community-building features that help students find their people and build genuine belonging on campus.

08/27/2026

This is the human layer AI-era communication runs on.

👉 Jesse Gatchalian put into words exactly why the human touch matters so much: "One common challenge is finding appropriate equivalents for technical terms in the assigned language. Some of these terms do not exist in Tagalog, and even when translated carefully, they may not sound fully accurate. In those cases, I choose the closest possible equivalent. Using technical cognates may sometimes be more acceptable when no exact Tagalog equivalent exists."

It is not casual; he's guided by a line from Nelson Mandela: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." Two decades in, he's seen the truth of it.

Thank you, Jesse, for sharing your experience and inspiring others to join our mission. But more importantly, for spotlighting one of the most vital parts of this work and teaching everyone reading along.

That's what Ad Astra is: a community working toward one purpose, communication access for everyone.

Our linguists are the people who hold this work up. No milestone, no number matters without them.
16 years of connection. Ad Astra, since 2010.

08/26/2026

Marking Women's Equality Day.

On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment gave American women the right to vote. It was one milestone in a much longer story about who gets to be heard.

More than a century later, that story is still being written.

As a woman-owned company, that's personal to us. This Women's Equality Day, we're thinking about that quieter part of equality: whether a woman's own words reach the room when it matters most.

Because being heard and understood without leaving anyone behind is how communities grow stronger and how the next generation leads.

08/25/2026

Would you trust an app built on total anonymity? A decade ago, that question sank Yik Yak.

In Ep. 57 of Connected Conversations, hosted by Elena Petrova, we sat down with Kyle Venn, CEO of Yik Yak, to ask the question every anonymous platform has to answer: can you keep people safe without taking away what makes them honest?

Kyle is direct about the past: on an anonymous platform picked up by high schoolers, as he puts it, most of what could go wrong did. He walks through what changed after he took over and lessons learned.

In this episode, they discuss:
🔸 Where the freedom to be anonymous runs into the duty to keep people safe
🔸 What rebuilding trust takes when people remember you for your worst chapter
🔸 Why people speak more honestly when no one knows their name, and what that says about how we act everywhere else
🔸 What a group of strangers matched on baking reveals about belonging you don't have to perform
🔸 Why some technology is built to hold your attention and some to help you belong, and how you feel the difference

After watching this episode, you will come away with a sharper way to think about the platforms your community lives on, and a set of questions to ask before you trust any of them.

Tune into the full episode with Kyle Venn:
🔴 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dAe8wGFw
🟢 Spotify: https://shorturl.at/tLUol
⚫ Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/7gueU
🔵 Amazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Hzmu

About Kyle:
Kyle Venn is a tech entrepreneur and product leader with a computer science background from Northeastern University, currently CEO of Yik Yak, one of the most recognizable anonymous social platforms for college students. He previously held engineering and leadership roles at Vimeo, Intuit, and PayPal. As CEO, he is focused on moving social media beyond passive scrolling toward meaningful, real-world connection, introducing community-building features that help students find their people and build genuine belonging on campus.

08/24/2026

In healthcare, every interpreted session needs to be verified: the start time, the end time, the service confirmation, the signature.

When that process runs on paper forms and manual follow-up, billing gets delayed, discrepancies are hard to track, and administrators spend time chasing documentation instead of managing care.

AdAstraConnect's Digital Verification of Service replaces all of that with a fully digital workflow. The interpreter completes the session, the client confirms, a digital signature is captured, and the record is instantly available for billing and reporting.

Organizations using Digital VOS report saving 5 hours of administrative time per week, time that goes back to managing care, not paperwork.

Request a Demo: ad-astrainc.com/connect

08/21/2026

A small, warm look at belonging online.

They built an app, created a 42-question quiz, and formed groups based on people's interests. One of the examples Kyle shared was a group of strangers, matched anonymously on a shared love of baking, who revealed their identities and planned to meet in person within 30 seconds.

In Ep. 57 hosted by Elena Petrova, Kyle Venn makes a claim that runs counter to most of what we assume about the internet: that taking your name off the screen can make you more honest and more able to belong.
Elena pushes into the harder places: Yik Yak's history on campus and what safety looks like when people speak without a name attached. What comes through is a picture of belonging as something you build on purpose.

You will come away with a sharper way to think about the platforms your own community lives on, and a set of questions worth asking before you trust any of them.

Tune into the full episode with Kyle Venn:
🔴 YouTube: https://youtu.be/-HM4uQ2ebq0
🟢 Spotify: https://shorturl.at/tLUol
⚫ Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/7gueU
🔵 Amazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Hzmu

08/19/2026

We are currently seeking Spanish interpreters for in-person assignments supporting Medical settings in the DMV Area (DC, MD, VA).

Responsibilities:
🔺 Provide accurate interpretation during medical and community appointments
🔺 Facilitate communication between patients and providers
🔺 Maintain confidentiality and professionalism

This is a great opportunity for interpreters looking for consistent government-related assignments while making a meaningful impact in their local community.

👉 IMPORTANT!
To be eligible for medical assignments (the majority of our work), candidates must have the following vaccinations. Check them and apply: https://lnkd.in/dFG7wg4Y

Ad Astra, Inc.

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