Preparations

By: Ludonis Maule
Ludonis Maule is a senior at Baruch College majoring in Entrepreneurship Management with a minor in Spanish. She has worked at Baruch College’s Study Abroad Office for the past three years where she advises students on their study abroad options and procedures, she has also coordinated several of the office's Study Abroad Fairs. This spring 2012 semester she is interning at InteRDom in the Marketing department.

Imagine waking up to warm, beaming sunshine rays, fresh morning breeze and the sound of the waves beating against the shore. You hurry out of bed, get dressed and head to school. This is the first day of classes and your internship. You met some of your classmates at the program's orientation a few days ago, the excitement you feel reminds you of your first day of college all over again.

On your way through the school’s gates you are greeted by your new friend who offers you breakfast prepared by her mother. You both hurry to class to begin your first day at school; this should be a great. This could be the beginning of the paper you write recounting your perfect study abroad experience.

Studying abroad is a valuable and fulfilling part of college life. It is not only a great asset to your marketability as an employee, but it also gives you the opportunity to experience academic life in another environment while immersing yourself in a foreign culture.

In order to make this experience a success, planning is vital. This process can take up to a year depending on the length of your study abroad program. One of the first and perhaps the most critical step in the planning process is deciding what are your main reasons for wanting to study abroad. These are a few things which can be taken into consideration when determining your reasons for studying abroad.
• Major or field of concentration
• Career goals
• Language ability
• Cultural/Heritage connection

You can begin your search for the ideal program on your school's website or office, most schools have study abroad or International Education offices which you should visit to get more information about the procedures and policies at your school.The Study Abroad/ International Office should also be able to provide you with information about scholarships offered through your school. National scholarships are available for study abroad purposes; with a little research, you should find scholarship information which will be helpful. Another way to obtain information about studying abroad is to visit academic campus fairs. Many schools have going/study abroad fairs or International Education weeks where you can obtain information about opportunities readily available to you. In many cases, they may even have individuals who went on various programs at the fair. This is a great opportunity for you to get first hand information from an actual recipient.

Obtaining college credits may be just as important for some as is financing. It is of utmost importance that you find out from the respective office at your school, the procedure of obtaining credit for your study abroad. You want to ensure that the credits or grades you receive will be included on your transcript when you have completed the program.

Deciding your reasons for going abroad, visiting the respective offices at your school and doing some online research provides the surety that you are well on your way to planning a life changing study abroad experience.

Service Learning Opportunities Grow

Once again this summer students from the City College of New York, as well as students in the whole CUNY system, will have the opportunity to participate in a service learning academic program in the Dominican Republic. Check out the beautiful artwork on the poster announcing the program! For more information, including a downloadable application, copy and paste this link into your web browser: http://www.interdominternships.org/summerprogram/summer01.asp

Adjusting to Life in Santo Domingo

By: Anna Groesser
Graduate and Gap Year 32-week Program, 2012
You can read about Anna's internship with Grupo PUNTACANA on the InteRDom website here.

I have been living in Santo Domingo for about one month now, and luckily arrived during their “dead of winter” season. To them, this means comfortable breezes and temperatures in the mid-80s. To me, coming from Northern Michigan, this is the height of summer! That being said, you can be sure I have enjoyed the temperatures while my friends and family in Michigan freeze. Honestly, my past month has been pretty relaxed. I’ve focused on getting adjusted to daily activities- for example, weekly shopping and visiting the local colmado for avocados and bananas (or catching the seller who passes through the street every day at 10am, and buying them from his cart). I’ve also toured some of the areas of Santo Domingo and have been slowly practicing my Spanish with strangers and friends (especially those helpful sentences such as “Can you say it with simple words?” and “A little slower, please.”)

Something interesting: after having been in Santo Domingo for only one week, I had experienced more culture shock than in my entire year studying in Tokyo. I attribute it to the fact that the Dominican Republic is not simply a foreign country to me, but also a developing country and a far cry from what I am familiar with back in the U.S. It’s a developing country, yes, but it’s also a busy, thriving and lively place. People are everywhere, things are going on everywhere, trash is everywhere. The streets are narrow and sidewalks are often non-existent. There is so much to look at and compare here. The driving is treacherous and sellers swarm cars at stop lights selling knickknacks, fruits and flowers, or trying to clean windshields. But on the other hand, the pace of “getting things done” in offices and banks and cellphone branches is often frustratingly slow. This is a city of extremes.

The FUNGLODE building is directly across from my apartment building. Their facility is high-tech and impressive, with Dominican security guards in evidence at all times of the night and day. FUNGLODE often hosts political and academic activities and during those evenings, the street below is full of cars looking to park (and lots of honking, to hurry each other along!) A few times a week, the president of the Dominican Republic visits FUNGLODE, and that’s always exciting to me.

My Spanish teacher was a confident and interesting Dominican Spanish language professor. We focused on speaking and listening mostly, as my reading and writing far exceed the former, and she gave me a birthday present on our last lesson day (a wind chime, perfect for my breezy and spacious 5^th floor apartment). I hope in a few months to reconnect with her, due to her strong interest in community development within Santo Domingo.

The next phase of my time here entails me moving to Punta Cana in a few days to begin my development internship with Grupo PUNTACANA. I will be interning within two projects- one the creation of a local elementary school and the other in the improvement of a local high school’s computer lab. This is exactly what I went to graduate school for and I can finally experience these things in real life, and not as solely theoretical 20-page paper projects!

Perspective Matters

By: Sydney Valerio
Summer Institute for Educators
Summer 2011

Sydney Valerio is an adjunct professor at Fordham University's School of Education. She also teaches high school English in the New York public school system. Of Dominican descent, her participation in the field portion of the PIER's Summer Institute for Educators in July 2011 was particularly poignant because of her roots on the island of Hispaniola.

As I climbed out of the taxicab and walked onto Santiago’s Calle del Sol, the Romantic gods found it very amusing to have a summertime shower come down on me. This historic street and city had witnessed the transformation of my being during many summers of my youth and now, as I dipped into its busy streets for some last minute photos and shopping before my evening flight, I knew that the skies of the Dominican Republic were speaking to me. Naturally, my Romantic inclinations appreciated nature’s ability to reflect my inner emotions. As the gumdrop-sized rain drops began to fall on my chest and resonate with the beatings of my heart I walked through these very familiar streets looking out for moments in which my camera would be able to capture the images I needed to feature in my project. As the universe would have it, the darkest of clouds dimmed the streets and squeezed torrential volumes of rain onto this ‘street of the sun’ forcing me to find refuge in a storefront along with other pedestrians. What followed could only be described by Paolo Coehlo’s phrase, ‘maktub’. It was written and the universe had conspired to make things happen for me. Those six hundred seconds that followed allowed for me to witness exchanges between store owners, customers, and those of us who only sought refuge. We all represented distinct purposes and backgrounds. Specifically, there was a young Haitian woman who was carrying a basin filled with toasted peanuts. Even her journey had been brought to a halt by the pitter patter of raindrops on her merchandise. Undoubtedly, the coincidence of our coming together had only transpired because of the inclement weather. All I could do was stare at her face and the nonverbal cues she communicated with her eyes. We were clearly, to one another, two women on a mission and reflections of our disparate worlds. Though we didn’t know each other’s languages we shared a smile and a nod of accordance that clearly stated: “This rain has derailed us!” As we held this silent conversation through our gazes a loud horn coming from a tractor-trailer sized Coca Cola truck interrupted our next move. This vehicle was having difficulty making a turn onto the colonial-sized street. All I could think at that moment, other than the irony of that situation, was about how much my perspective had transformed over the past decade of my life in which I had entered adulthood in a pre and post 9/11 world. A decade in which the homogeneity of being a Latina in the Bronx was distinctly redirected and redefined as I moved into different regions of New York for my educational and professional endeavors. More recently, my perspective had been influenced by my educational journey over the past two weeks.

The New Haven portion of the Yale/NYU Colonial Latin America Institute created the necessary foundation from which to develop my unit, “Perspective Matters”. The participants and lecturers developed my thirst for knowledge about Colonial Latin America. As a high school English teacher in a New York public school I knew I’d have to develop a unit that developed the skills assessed in the New York State Regents exam. In my decade of teaching I have found success because of my ability to relate the curricular material to the lives of my students in a very Constructivist manner. I knew that I wanted to feature Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer winning novel in my unit because of its compelling connecting effect. In order for my students to comprehend any excerpt of this novel they would have to develop their perspective and explore Dominican history and Latino identity. I must admit that my motives were clearly connected to Gardner’s Cultivation Communications theory in which he claims that as a society we define certain aspects of society based on the media images we consume rather than our first-hand, sometimes limited, experiences. While at New Haven, I selected Diaz’s excerpt as the main focus of his activity both because of the series of images that were at the center of the piece and because I knew that I would be able to capture these images firsthand the following week during our trip to the Dominican Republic. I was also very excited to select Diaz’s excerpt because of the large representation of students of Dominican descent in my school. I knew that their perspectives would contribute immensely to our discussions.

The moment I stepped foot on Dominican land I knew that my week in that country would be transformative. The itinerary created by the InteRDom team was full of a variety of visits, lectures and panels that promised to take my project to the next level. Every day’s theme nourished a part of my essence as a teacher and Latina of Dominican descent. Every visit and every guide through historical landmarks created windows for me to look through and use in the future. In specific, the day we spent at Altos de Chavon provided an amazing workshop and tour of the site’s museum and grounds. While visiting the Colonial Zone and the site of the first sugar plantation in Boca de Nigua I certainly understood the power my students would access through this project and their study of Diaz’s literature, Dominican history, and global society. I am currently working on developing the stage from which my project will be taught in all of my tenth and eleventh grade classes. I certainly look forward to the exploration and possible conquest.

CDN Brings More than just Baseball Broadcasts to Dominican Fans

By: Chris Martinez
InteRDom Intern Fall 2011
InteRDom Experience Series Article #4

Christine Martinez studies Global Studies with minors in journalism and Spanish at San Jose State University in San Jose, California. She is participating in InteRDom's Fall 2011 Academic Semester, taking courses at a local university and carrying out a research project specially structured for her by InteRDom staff on the business of baseball in the Dominican Republic. The articles that she produces will be published on this blog under the tag "InteRDom Experience Series." To read more about Chris' experience with InteRDom in the Dominican Republic, read the InteRDom Experience Series on the InteRDom webpage.

There’s a sign in the CDN studios in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, that outlines the channel’s mission statement. At the top of the mission statement is CDN’s motto: the national leader in news.

CDNs an important local channel in the Dominican Republic, not just for news but for sports broadcasting. CDN holds exclusive rights among local channels for Major League Baseball and Liga de Beisbol Profesional de la Republica Dominicana (Dominican Professional Baseball League) broadcasts. The channel has a big responsibility to bring the favorite sport to citizens on television.

CDN sports producer Ambiorix Vidal understands why baseball is so important to his country. As a former ballplayer, Vidal values the sport and sees the positive impact baseball has on the Dominican Republic.

“La marca país is the national brand,” Vidal said through an interpreter. “The Dominican Ministry of Tourism created the national brand to promote the Dominican Republic through everything. Baseball should do that.”

Vidal mentioned a plan for the Dominican League to play regular season games in New York to promote the national brand, but the plan did not come together because Dominican League games are scheduled for the fall and winter months, when it is too cold to play baseball in New York City.

Vidal sees how Dominican businesses can use baseball to connect with their customers. Local bank Banco BHD runs a television advertisement during CDN baseball broadcasts for their bank cards and credit cards featuring Dominican League team logos. The commercial shows fans of each of the six Dominican League teams, wearing their team’s colors and coming together in the end as fans of baseball rather than just one team.

"The commercial identifies the fan with their team,” Vidal said. “It identifies BHD as a brand that supports baseball here."

The week after the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series, CDN broadcast a special report on the Cardinals team. It showed footage of the Cardinals celebrating after their win and featured interviews with popular Latin American players.

Albert Pujols, born in Santo Domingo, was one of the subjects. Pujols is one of the most popular players in MLB in the United States and is considered the best player among Dominican fans. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was also interviewed on CDN’s special. Molina is part of a famous baseball family from Puerto Rico and his inclusion in the CDN special highlights how Latin American baseball players and fans are interconnected.

Vidal said players like Pujols and Molina grow together by spending time in the minor leagues. They stay together because of their common language of Spanish and because players in the minors share everything, from food to living quarters to money.

“As a channel, CDN promotes the familiarity so the fans can know it,” Vidal said. “All Latin Americans like to be familiar with one another.”

While CDN brings baseball to Dominican fans, Vidal insists the best way to watch a baseball game is at the stadium, especially if the visiting team wins. It’s standard procedure to favor the home team’s broadcasts and leave out the visiting team’s post game programming if the home team loses.

“Each channel is the owner of their transmission,” he said. “The visiting team won't have their post game coverage on the local channel. Last year when Toros del Este won the league championship, ESPN Deportes showed their celebration. For fans to enjoy the game they have to be at the stadium.”

MLB increases profits by investing in values in Dominican baseball

By: Chris Martinez
InteRDom Intern Fall 2011
InteRDom Experience Series Article #3

Christine Martinez studies Global Studies with minors in journalism and Spanish at San Jose State University in San Jose, California. She is participating in InteRDom's Fall 2011 Academic Semester, taking courses at a local university and carrying out a research project specially structured for her by InteRDom staff on the business of baseball in the Dominican Republic. The articles that she produces will be published on this blog under the tag "InteRDom Experience Series." To read more about Chris' experience with InteRDom in the Dominican Republic, read the InteRDom Experience Series on the InteRDom webpage.

As one of the four major sports leagues in the United States, Major League Baseball is a highly profitable enterprise. Unlike the other leagues in the US, MLB has significant investments in player development outside of the country. It invests more in the Dominican Republic than in any country outside the US, and it sees a great return on those investments.

In a symposium at Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) in March, MLB released an economic impact report for the Dominican Republic that estimated an annual flow of US$125 million into the country from MLB and its 30 teams.

The sustainability of MLB's investment relies more and more on the development of Dominican players away from the diamond. ENTRENA specializes in training, consulting and education projects for clients in the Dominican Republic and the rest of the Caribbean and works closely with MLB in the country.

John Seibel, president of ENTRENA and consultant to MLB, works to bring the best of baseball out in the Dominican Republic through corporate social responsibility.

"The Dominican Republic is the only place in the world where a relatively small country has an incredible influence in development of a multinational sports industry," Seibel said. "MLB has an enormous influence through our players ,our image, and the values we represent."

Seibel believes that by investing in morals and values, MLB can sustain its investment. ENTRENA helps MLB foster long term financial sustainability by giving back to the community and to the fans and investing in education. Through these actions, Seibel says that people will respond even more favorably to the social impact of baseball and remark, "mira que buena es la pelota" or "look how good baseball is," and thus build a stronger foundation for baseball to grow as an enterprise.

"You do it because it's the right thing to do," he said. "Not to get some marketing out of it."

The Los Angeles Dodgers were the first MLB team to establish an academy in the Dominican Republic in 1984. Almost 30 years later, each MLB club has an academy in the country, a massive growth project that has led to constructing new state-of-the art academies like the San Diego Padres' facility.

This investment in Dominican baseball also helps the local economy by creating jobs. Groundskeepers are needed to tend to outfield grass and pitching mounds. Doctors, athletic trainers, and nutritionists are needed to keep the players healthy and focused on peak performance. Seibel said that these jobs spotlight the need for baseball development in this country to focus on training and managing these niches as the industry expands.

When it comes down to investing in development, the question is always about money and where the funds come from. Seibel said that much of the development funding for the DR comes from international sources, such as USAID, the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and European Union.

He also said involvement from the Dominican private sector is key, but it presents challenges. "If you want to make development sustainable in the long run, Dominican society needs to be actively engaged,” Seibel said. “You can use international funding to jumpstart something but you [must] actively involve the Dominican private sector and government. That's a challenge."

MLB also directly invests in its own programs, many of which operate in the Dominican Republic. RBI--Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities--works in both the US and the Dominican Republic to increase interest in baseball and softball among at-risk children. The MLB Dominican Development Alliance is a unique program developed as a result of a public-private partnership between USAID and MLB. It was started with Dominican goals and realities in mind, rather than transplanted from the American setting and adjusted for the needs of the Dominican Republic.

"It is a model of the private-public partnership that the US government, through USAID, wants to develop more," Seibel said of MLB/DDA. "It's not just about giving money but rather creating a sustainable partnership which can harness the potential of baseball to improve poor communities in the DR.”

Education in the Dominican Republic: Part II—Major League Baseball’s role in providing a future for Latin American prospects outside of baseball

By: Chris Martinez

InteRDom Intern Fall 2011

InteRDom Experience Series Article #2

Christine Martinez studies Global Studies with minors in journalism and Spanish at San Jose State University in San Jose, California. She is participating in InteRDom's Fall 2011 Academic Semester, taking courses at a local university and carrying out a research project specially structured for her by InteRDom staff on the business of baseball in the Dominican Republic. The articles that she produces will be published on this blog under the tag "InteRDom Experience Series." To read more about Chris' experience with InteRDom in the Dominican Republic, read the InteRDom Experience Series on the InteRDom webpage.

Major League Baseball’s home base in the Dominican Republic serves the needs of baseball players throughout Latin America. The Santo Domingo based office was placed in the country that produces the highest number of international players to MLB. The Dominican Republic also sees more scandals with players surrounding age falsification, drug use, and predatory signing and training practices than in any other Latin American nation.

One of the lesser known functions of the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball in Santo Domingo is the organization’s work to improve the education of Latin American prospects playing in baseball academies in the Dominican Republic.

The Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball in Santo Domingo estimates that for every 100 teenage prospects in the Dominican Republic, two make it to the United States to play baseball. That places a heavy burden on MLB to provide skills outside of baseball to the scores of young men with dreams that may never be reached. This is not a simple task and that is why the Office of the Commissioner is conducting substantial research on the matter.

Community affairs director Peggy Morales works in the Office of the Commissioner to enrich the lives of prospects in the Dominican Republic. Currently the prospects, who begin their careers at age 16, are taught English lessons in the team academies along with their baseball instruction, but MLB wants to offer them more.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are a shining example of what MLB’s education initiatives can do in the country. Their academy offers English lessons as well as lessons on how to use computers and they aid prospects to finish their high school educations through lessons at the academy. The Pirates work with Cenapec, a non-profit education organization in the Dominican Republic that helps adult students complete their basic education though distance learning.

Pittsburgh has an education coordinator who works in the team’s minor league system in United States as well as in the Dominican Republic to make sure that the education in the system is up to par. “They have a good educational philosophy they want everyone—players and staff--to be prepared,” Morales said.

Cenapec created a program specifically for the Pirates’ based on the organization’s needs and has an education coordinator working solely for the Pirates. Players at academies take classes four hours a day, three days a week to complete their high school diplomas. Comprehensive classes are offered in history, language, social science, and computers. The students have access to several classrooms equipped with computers and media at Pittsburgh’s academy in El Toro, close to Boca Chica.

Pittsburgh mandates attendance at these lessons for all their prospects. “It’s difficult because players schedule is tight,” Morales said. “They practice, play, and take English lessons, and then take classes. It poses a challenge for implementing programs. It's tough to get players to value education because they're so tired from the day's events.”

Achieving DELE Language Certification in the Dominican Republic

By: Caitlin Lowery
Graduate and Gap Year Program
Fall 2010

When I applied to the InteRDom program, I mentioned that one of my goals was to take the DELE (Diploma de Espanol como Lengua Extranjera) exam and the InteRDom team worked hard to help me accomplish that aim. The DELE is a test of proficiency in the Spanish language for non-native speakers, comparable to the TOEFL exam required for foreign applicants by many universities in the U.S. to demonstrate linguistic competence in English.

The DELE is only offered a few times a year and has three levels: Inicial, Intermedio, and Superior. InteRDom set up private Spanish language tutoring sessions for me, twice a week, for my entire stay in the Dominican Republic, with Martha Campusano, a very kind and capable teacher. I elected to take the "Superior" test, because I felt that it would be most beneficial in light of my future plans. The test includes reading comprehension, writing, listening, vocabulary and grammar, and an oral section. I decided to take the DELE in part because I wanted a concrete measure of my degree of proficiency in Spanish and also because I would like to work in the field of international development and I believe it will be useful when I apply for jobs that require fluency in Spanish. After weeks of studying with Martha and living and working in Santo Domingo, I passed the exam and should receive my diploma in a few weeks, an accomplishment I could not have achieved without the help of Martha and the InteRDom staff.

Epy Guerrero’s baseball legacy lives in the US and the Dominican Republic

By: Chris Martinez
InteRDom Intern Fall 2011
InteRDom Experience Series Article #1

Christine Martinez studies Global Studies with minors in journalism and Spanish at San Jose State University in San Jose, California. She is participating in InteRDom's Fall 2011 Academic Semester, taking courses at a local university and carrying out a research project specially structured for her by InteRDom staff on the business of baseball in the Dominican Republic. The articles that she produces will be published on this blog under the tag "InteRDom Experience Series." To read more about Chris' experience with InteRDom in the Dominican Republic, read the InteRDom Experience Series on the InteRDom webpage.

To understand baseball in the Dominican Republic, it's best to consult the best man for the job. Epifanio Guerrero has signed more players to Major League contracts than any scout, has produced World Series winning talent, and has won loads of awards for his accomplishments. He continues his work as an independent scout in the Dominican Republic today.

These days, Epy is an affable guy who's eager to tell stories of his 40 years in baseball. His house at his training complex in Villa Mella has a room full of pictures of his players, articles about his work, and awards for his achievements.

Guerrero's success in the sport can be summarized in a framed photo sitting in his Santo Domingo home. It's the three newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.: right-handed pitcher Bert Blyleven, infielder Roberto Alomar, and executive Pat Gillick. The trio was inducted into the Hall of Fame this July, and Guerrero was on hand to celebrate with Alomar and Gillick, two men who owe much of their success to Guerrero.

Guerrero worked as a scout in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, signing and developing players like Carlos Delgado, Tony Fernandez, and Damaso Garcia. In 1991, fourteen of the players on Toronto's 40-man roster were guys Guerrero signed and developed. The following year, the Dominican Summer League Blue Jays won 38 games to start the 1992 season before finishing 68-2.

Artifacts of both milestones are also in Guerrero's Santo Domingo home. There's a picture, yellowed with age and hanging on the wall, of Guerrero standing with seven of his kids in 1991. A white baseball cap embroidered with the old Blue Jays logo and a special inscription of the DSL team's 38-0 record hangs on his bureau.

Of course, there is the big prize of the Blue Jays organization. Toronto won back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, thanks in no small part to Guerrero's talent pool. Alomar was one of the offensive stars of those teams.

Gillick was the general manager of the Blue Jays when they won their world titles and went on to win another World Series with Philadelphia in 2008 before retiring from executive work.

Guerrero built the Toronto teams for Gillick, someone he's still close with and refers to as a father figure.

Guerrero has also scouted for Houston and Milwaukee but has seen the greatest achievements of his career come in Toronto. Now he works for himself, developing Dominican kids independent of any one team.

Guerrero’s legacy in the Dominican Republic can be seen in the talent he sends to the Major Leagues, but also in his most important organization: his family.

It’s clear that Guerrero values family in baseball. His sons Sandy, Patrick, and Mike all work in the sport. Sandy is the hitting coach for the Triple-A Nashville Sounds in the Brewers organization and Mike was a manager for Double-A Huntsville, also a Brewers affiliate, in 2009. Patrick works with his father in the Villa Mella camp.