International Women’s Day Event Celebrates Empire’s Zülal Balpinar
(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — March 14, 2025) For Zülal Balpinar, Ph.D., pursuing a career in education was all but predestined. A longtime teacher with decades of experience under her belt, the Turkish scholar—who has served as the academic program coordinator for Empire State University’s Center for International Education Dual Degree Program with Anadolu University since 2017—developed an interest in the profession at the ripe age of four. It was at that time that her mother, also a teacher by trade, began taking her to the school where she worked.
“I would sit in huge leather chairs and wait for her,” Balpinar recalled. “That school atmosphere, I grew up there. It just got infused in the blood from a very early age. I took to teaching as a duck takes to water.”
Balpinar’s calling for education set the stage for a virtual event on March 5, when—in collaboration with the alumni engagement team— SUNY Empire’s Center for International Education hosted an International Women’s Day webinar in her honor. Officially observed each year on March 8, the global holiday aims to uplift the social, economic, cultural, and political accomplishments of women around the world. Balpinar reflected on her personal achievements and other aspects of her lengthy teaching career during the hour-long event, which featured a conversation between the educator and senior executive director of International Education Francesca Cichello.
Throughout the discussion, the pair touched on various elements of Balpinar’s extensive resume. One major highlight? Balpinar’s years of teaching English on a popular, widely viewed Turkish television program—a gig that has earned her a degree of celebrity in her home country, Cichello noted. To this day, it’s not unusual for fans of the show to recognize Balpinar in public, though the educator admits she’s bashful about the attention.
“I always considered myself a teacher,” Balpinar explained. “That’s my most important function, as I see myself.”
It’s easy to understand why. For 35 years, Balpinar served as a faculty member in the English language teacher training program at Anadolu University. During her time at the Turkish institution, she balanced teaching with authoring or contributing to more than a dozen books, presenting at national and international conferences, and serving as a thesis advisor for many students in education-focused master’s and doctorate programs. She now works with SUNY Empire students enrolled in the dual degree program in Business Administration.
Balpinar said that decades of instructing and mentoring aspiring educators has taught her an important lesson: “I do not think you can teach people to be teachers … you [have to] show them. You are the model,” she said, adding that it’s important for teachers to earn their students’ respect by demonstrating their knowledge. “‘She knows her stuff’—that’s the compliment you want.”
Balpinar hopes that being a model teacher—and inspiring others to do the same—defines her legacy as an educator. She sees her students as her work or “product,” she said. “I’m not Beethoven. I’m not Rodin. I can’t leave [behind] beautiful music or paintings. But if people have a little bit of [my] ‘music’ in their minds, that’s good enough.”