With Celebrate Certification Month in full swing, the JCR Weekly reached out to NCRA member Kathryn Sweeney, FAPR, RDR, CRR, a freelance court reporter from Bedford, N.H. Sweeney also currently serves as president of the New Hampshire Court Reporters Association.
Sweeney is passionate about the power of professional certifications, and she is also part owner of Abriel & Sweeney Court Reporting based in Newton, Mass. This summer Sweeney will share that passion with fellow colleagues in her session “Certs Matter” at NCRA’s 2025 Conference & Expo taking place July 24-26 in Minneapolis, Minn.
JCR | What motivated you to earn the certifications you hold?
KS | I went to school in the ’90s, back when teachers stressed the importance of both state and national certification. Right out of school I earned my state CSR, and the very next year my RPR. Bam, right out of the gate! I had attempted to get my RMR the year after my RPR, but I only passed the literary. Dang, that Q & A is a heartbreaker! A few years after that came the new and interesting CRR certification. Learning from colleagues that realtime was the future of this profession, I was totally intrigued by it and driven to advance my career status.
It took over a year to refine my writing to where I felt I was good enough to pass, and I did! I figured the RPR and CRR were all I ever needed, so I stopped there and coasted for the next 16 years.
In 2013 I learned that the brick-and-mortar days of testing were going away with the advent of online testing. I’m an old-school kinda gal, so I figured if there ever was a time I wanted to get my RMR, this was it. I had been a stenographer for more than 20 years by that point, and after I took the test and passed, I realized I needed that maturity – both personally and professionally – to get me over the hump of 260 wpm.
Kathryn Sweeney
There are many benefits to holding a professional certification: Being among the court reporting elite; making more money (whether official or freelance); personal and professional growth; getting the top-tier assignments; you won’t get left behind; earning PDCs; and, my favorite, the better you write, the more you cut down on your editing time.
Fast forward another 10 years – yes, to 2023 – and I was talking to my daughter in the car after picking her up from school. She was contemplating whether she should try out for the soccer team, and I kept telling her to at least try. If you fail, you fail, but you won’t have any regrets of at least attempting to make the team. She asked me if there was anything that I hadn’t attempted and the first thing I thought of was the RDR. She then challenged me, and I love a challenge!
Both her and my son helped me study with materials I had printed out and pored over. Parents aren’t allowed to text their children during school hours, but the morning of my exam she told me to text her either way. With preliminary results in hand, I was beyond thrilled that I passed, and the “Yay!” she texted back made me cry.
My daughter didn’t make the soccer team, but she does feel good that she tried. It really was a great life lesson.
JCR | Do you plan to earn any additional certifications at this point in your career?
KS | I have tapped out on all of the certifications meant for court reporters. But who knows? I may decide to become a captioner and need my CRC.
JCR | How have your certifications aided you in your professional career?
KS | Personally, each new attained certification brought self-confidence which, in turn, led me to take on tougher assignments that I wouldn’t necessarily have felt comfortable with before. The main one that really brings to light the importance of certification is the CRR. Being able to tell agency owners that you are a Certified Realtime Reporter helps instill confidence that you can do the job and do it well. From an agency owner’s perspective, I only send CRRs to realtime jobs.
JCR | What do you tell others to encourage them to earn professional certifications?
KS | To paraphrase Glinda from “The Wizard of Oz,” “You’ve had the power all along.” I never knew I was capable of passing the tests until I tried. If anything, I tell my friends to try it at least once. Even if you don’t pass that first time, you will have a baseline to know whether you are close. And hopefully, having taken the test the first time, you get a better idea of what it is you need to improve on to make the next attempt successful.
JCR | You are leading a session at the NCRA Conference & Expo called “Certs Matter.” What do you hope attendees will take away from that session?
KS | It’s never too late! I earned my first certification in 1992 and my most recent one in 2023. That’s over a 30-year time span. It’s truly crazy to think of it that way. (There’s obviously so much more I’m going to impart to the attendees, but I’ve said a lot about it already in answering your other questions … LOL).
If the CRR is in your sights, come and see me in Minneapolis at the NCRA annual Conference where I present my three-hour CRR Boot Camp. I will demystify everything about that exam and give you tips and tricks to help pass it.
JCR | On a last note?
KS | After attaining the RPR, CRR, RMR, and RDR, the personal satisfaction of accomplishing what only a small percentage of court reporters have done is an incredible feeling. It’s like our own little EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). When I got my test results from the RDR, I was on cloud nine for a long time. The number of people that congratulated me when my name was published in the JCR was a bonus. Most of them told me that they also want to take the test but are afraid to. Maybe “afraid” is a bad word there. I suppose they are uncertain, as I was, about what the exam is looking for. NCRA lays out the topics and it’s up to you to do research and study.
One tip is to read the NCRA website. And I mean read every little nook and cranny: the Constitution & Bylaws, all about the Foundation and grants and scholarships, et cetera. Click on every link and get lost in the site, absorbing everything.
Sweeney is presenting “Certs Matter” on Fri., July 25 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the 2025 NCRA Conference & Expo taking place in Minneapolis, Minn.
Certs Matter
Do you think national certifications don’t matter? Think again! Agency owners and court systems rely on the testing done by NCRA for determining the competency of stenographers. Kathryn will break down each exam and its testing requirements, and she will emphasize the importance of holding one (or more!) of those certifications. Maybe you’ve already been certified and are looking to level up!
Learn how you can open yourself up to better job opportunities, make more money, cut down on your editing time, and the best practice sites to utilize. It’s time to be among the court reporting elite!
Kathryn Sweeney, FAPR, RDR, CRR, a freelance court reporter from Bedford, N.H., can be reached at kaytikat30@yahoo.com.
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