Love of Language: Perla Zamitiz on Being a Linguist and the Spanish BBA

(SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – June 2, 2025) Linguist Perla Zamitiz joined Empire State University on October 10, 2024—the day of the 2024 Fall Academic Conference and, coincidentally, her birthday. “It was my birthday gift,” she jokes. Zamitiz has since held a crucial role in the large-scale translation project to prepare Empire State University to receive the inaugural cohort of the new Spanish BBA.

Hailing from Puebla, Mexico, Zamitiz grew up surrounded by the greenery of her father’s coffee farm. Her childhood unfolded between harvests and daily dips in the river where she learned how to swim. “That’s what I most remember about my childhood,” she says, “going to swim every day for hours and hours, and helping my dad with the coffee harvest.”

When Zamitiz was college-aged, she moved to the city— “It’s completely different. Every break, my brother and I would run to our home in the mountains,” she comments. This transition from country to city life was not the last big change Zamitiz would learn to navigate; she went on to live in Tennessee throughout graduate school and later moved to Ohio. “I adapt really well,” says Zamitiz, who enjoys the presence of lakes and rivers near her home in New York, and has grown accustomed to seasonal weather changes.

“Spanish was my native language, but I feel that my experience might be the opposite of what most people go through because my bachelor’s degree in Mexico was taught in English,” says Zamitiz. Her experience during the program, particularly learning from American faculty members, cultivated a strong foundation in English before she ever set foot in the United States. She studied linguistics with the aim of teaching foreign languages later on.

In graduate school, Zamitiz’s program was in Latin American literature, which flipped the linguistic structure of her BA on its head. Stemming from her master’s degree, Zamitiz was invited to continue her studies by doing a Ph.D. in same subject, which required learning different languages. This led her to not only have command over Spanish and English, but also Portuguese—in which she taught classes—and Russian, in which she acquired basic conversational skills.

Zamitiz taught at various colleges and universities early on in her professional career. Her passion for languages and words drew her to the world of editing, and eventually, her role at Empire State University came into view. “Linguistics—being able to proofread and edit is wonderful,” she comments about her current role as a linguist working on interdepartmental translation projects for the university.

“I love the team that we have and being a part of this [project from the] beginning, because it’s a first. So, it feels special to be part of that, doing what I really love,” says Zamitiz regarding her role in helping establish the new Spanish BBA program at Empire State University.

Zamitiz believes the program’s creation proves its value already, as it is designed to serve an existing demographic of Spanish speakers seeking academic credentials unimpeded by a language barrier. As for its upcoming first cohort of students, she says: “I really hope that they can feel some kind of ‘family warm welcome’ when they open the pages and see all the information.” She underscores the care and extensive work that has been put into preparing everything students will need to enroll, take classes, and participate in the university community. Excited to continue her translation, editing, and proofreading work, Zamitiz hopes the program reaches learners who may have been looking for it all along.