Behind the Screen: Bilingual Multimedia Technologist Irene Oramas Sosa

(MANHATTAN, NY — August 6, 2025) “I like helping everybody else, even above myself,” says Irene Oramas Sosa, bilingual multimedia technologist at Empire State University. Working on backend projects such as translating and captioning course materials, creating knowledge base articles, and ensuring Spanish-language accessibility for incoming Spanish Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) students, she takes on each task with a positive disposition and warmth. She joined the Empire Online team four months ago, bringing a love of education, language, and community with her.

Oramas Sosa was born in Puerto Rico, where she was raised by a single parent—her mother—with the help of her grandmother when long shifts at a factory producing intravenous hospital equipment would pop up. Her mother was born in the Bronx, which Oramas Sosa visited during her teenage years to see family. Her heritage is Spanish, both from the mainland and the Canary Islands, and Indigenous—her paternal great-grandmother was Taíno and Spanish.

She describes her upbringing as “tough,” with the challenges of single parenthood at home, being bullied at school due to her and her sister’s white-passing appearances and names, which made them outliers in their community, and surviving multiple hurricanes—notably, Hurricane Hugo in 1989, which she lived through as a young girl. Despite adverse conditions, the value of education was instilled in her from a young age—she understood that it was a gateway to empowerment and mobility. Oramas Sosa comments: “If we were sick, we would [still] have to go to school … my mother wanted to make sure that we were able to take advantage of education and not stay in the same position that she was in.”

Her education was bilingual, with most classes held in Spanish save for one core English class, which Oramas Sosa found herself drawn to. “My favorite class was English. It gave me a sense of ‘I’m different.’ I don’t have one language, I have another,” she explains. “Biliteracy and bilingualism were very important for us, and very encouraged at my house.”

Community, support, and accessibility have all been facilitated in Oramas Sosa’s life through having a bilingual skillset. Now, she feels passionate about being able to apply her skills in multimedia technology in both English and Spanish, thus helping remove the language barrier to university materials. Accessible content helps Spanish speakers at Empire State University feel seen, allowing them to fully and comfortably engage with content. “Bilingualism is a sense of security,” she says, emphasizing the importance of being equipped to help faculty, staff, and students to the best of one’s ability.

With the forthcoming arrival of the first cohort of the Spanish BBA, Oramas Sosa is eager to assist Spanish-speaking students and staff and see the program flourish. Regarding the program’s international reach, which encompasses faculty and prospective students from Hispanic nations across the globe, she comments: “You branch out to other countries, to other places. It will give you the opportunity to be international.” She emphasizes the importance of expanding one’s worldview, which the Spanish BBA facilitates.

Though it has been 20 years since she last lived in Puerto Rico, Oramas Sosa keeps strong ties to her culture and language alive— “The food, the lingo, the slang. It keeps the sense of culture here at my house.” She sees bilingualism as a conduit for personal growth, and a medium for fostering understanding. “You not only are working on your cognitive growth,” she says about learning a second language, “but it will open opportunities to help others.” Above all else, she underscores the impact of being able to reach a broader community, and to offer assistance to anyone who needs it, which makes her work at Empire State University fulfilling.