Bridging Culture: Bilingual Student Support with Armando Flores
(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — July 14, 2025) Every day, Armando Flores, bilingual enrollment and partnership outreach officer at Empire State University, helps guide Spanish-speaking students through the enrollment process, addressing their questions and concerns with care. Having joined the university in January, he has settled into his role as a cultural bridge for the university, assisting with the recruitment of students for the new Spanish-language Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program and amplifying its reach.
His first brushes with bilingualism occurred early in life, at home. Born in Xalitla, a small pueblo in Guerrero, Mexico, Flores’s parents spoke Spanish and Nahuatl. “I still want to learn that language. And I hear my parents speak it all the time,” he shares. His fascination with Nahuatl, in great part, is because many Spanish words in Mexico have been derived from it. Xocolatl, he explains, refers to a bitter, spiced chocolate drink, for which the Spanish word is the same as in English: chocolate. “I do have aunts that are teachers. They teach both in Spanish and Nahuatl in Mexico. Maybe I’ll visit them and get an intensive course,” Flores says with a smile.
Things changed early on, he says: “I only spent my first three years in Mexico, and then my dad decided to bring us to the U.S.” The transition from Xalitla to Chicago proved complicated, largely due to the language barrier his family now faced—his already bilingual parents had difficulties learning English as a third language. “There were eight of us [kids], and we were all trying to start picking it up … I kind of had it easier because I started from square one,” he comments about learning English from that young an age. Thankfully, the education system in Chicago lent itself to bilingual learning, and he was able to continue learning in Spanish while acquiring English-language skills: “My teachers were very supportive,” he continues, “they were throwing English at me the whole time.”
In those days, he remembers being a translator for his parents, “When I was growing up, I would go with my mom to doctor’s visits for my sister. I was the interpreter there.” He considers this an experience that prepared him for the kind of work he does at Empire State University today: “I became the interpreter again … I’m helping, supporting, and kind of being that backbone,” he reflects. His role is to support Spanish-speaking students through the enrollment process for the Spanish BBA program, which will welcome its inaugural cohort this fall. Flores considers no task too big or too small, and his cross-training facilitates working collaboratively across the university.
Another area in which Flores is involved is the promotion of the program, he says, “It’s essential to provide services for people we’re targeting … especially when trying to grow the program.” Through his interactions with prospective students, he has witnessed the need for bilingual student support, and for the program at large. Many students “already have master’s degrees … I’m shocked that there’s talent that’s not being tapped into because of the language barrier,” he says.
In his time with the university as a student-facing figure, he has seen the wealth of diversity among Spanish speakers that makes the Spanish BBA program such an undertaking for the university—not all Spanish dialects are the same, “I have to modify my language all the time … I don’t want to confuse them,” he says. “The word bachiller in Mexico is [equivalent to] high school diploma … I think Uruguay uses bachiller for the bachelor’s degree,” Flores explains. Though navigating the different dialects of Spanish is challenging, he sees it as a learning curve and has faith these encounters will help bilingual support staff gain confidence in their skills. “One student told me: ‘I met an angel. You’ve been the only person willing to talk to me and call me back’ … [things like] that really get me to show up the next day,” comments Flores.
He, like many in the bilingual support team, finds deep meaning in connecting with and helping students. Because of the direct impact bilingual services have in higher education, he hopes that the Spanish BBA is only the beginning. Flores says, “There was one [student] that wanted to study engineering, and another wanted to be a medical assistant. I told them we don’t offer that yet—but maybe in the future … I’m hoping there are more programs that could grow from this.” Language learning is a challenging yet rewarding gateway to connection: “You not only have to practice, but you also have to watch TV, listen to the radio, movies … even if you’re not fluent right away, your brain will make the connections,” he advises those seeking to branch out linguistically. Encouragingly, he adds, “Being able to speak another language …. It just makes your life a little richer.”