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.

The Field of International Relations in the Dominican Republic

By: Jatnna Garcia
InteRDom Caribbean Summer 2011 Alumnus

Growing up in the Dominican Republic was a great experience. There are so many things to love about this tiny island, from its weather to its people. Through the different multicultural activities at school, I met people from all over the world with all sorts of races, religions, and cultures. I became highly interested in foreign languages, the way people from different nations interacted, and how people with different cultural backgrounds got along. I knew ever since elementary school that I wanted to get to know many cultures, further interact with people from around the world, and learn more about different nations, therefore, international relations seemed like the best career choice for me. Eventually, I figured that it was important for me to study in another country, in order to better understand how one’s culture, religion, native language and so on could affect the way one formed relations with different people. This is what mostly influenced my decision to finish high school in the US and go on to college in the same country. Besides, I realized it would be a great way to get some firsthand experience on international relations. Also, few to no Dominican colleges offered the program, so the best decision seemed to be to leave the country.

Coming back to the Dominican Republic to work for a local NGO that deals with International Relations so closely as does the Dominican Council of International Relations (CDRI), under the initiative of FUNGLODE, was a marvelous experience. It feels great to be able to, through my chosen career path, give back to the land in which I grew up. Since I left, I always came back for vacations, but none had been as long and beneficial as this one. I got to see and be a part of a lot of changes taking place in regards to education in the country, one being in the area of international relations itself. Careers in diplomacy and international relations are now offered in two local universities (UNICARIBE & UCSD), and more programs, including masters and graduate programs are being drafted. Lastly, I noticed that more and more people are interested in international relations here in the Dominican Republic, and that the country is getting more and more involved in international affairs. These discoveries fill my heart with joy because, although there's still a long way to go, Dominican Republic, in comparison with other countries in the Region, keeps an accelerated pace in terms of development, in accordance to the demands of a globalized planet.

Links between Globalization, Internships, Education and International Exchange: Internship Certification Seminar

By: Joaquin Salazar
InteRDom Consultant and Certification Instructor

With the turn of the 21st Century, humanity finds itself in the midst of an information revolution generally known as globalization. It became especially significant following World War II, which brought the devastating consequences of death and destruction, and in turn awakened academic, philosophical and world political bodies that lead to the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in June 1945.

The goal of the United Nations was cultural interchange on a global basis, which is expressed in the Universal Declaration of UNESCO on Cultural Diversity in paragraph 2:

“In our increasingly diverse societies, it is essential to ensure harmonious interaction among people and groups with plural, varied and dynamic cultural identities as well as their willingness to live together. Policies for the inclusion and participation of all citizens are guarantees of social cohesion, the vitality of civil society and peace. Thus defined, cultural pluralism gives policy expression to the reality of cultural diversity. Indissociable from a democratic framework, cultural pluralism is conducive to cultural exchange and to the flourishing of creative capacities that sustain public life.”

This Declaration implies a deep understanding of the movement known as globalization, which has been on the rise in recent years in all areas of human activity. In 1961, by executive order of US President John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps was founded as a way for young Americans to contribute to the goal of helping people outside the United States to understand American culture and to help Americans understand the cultures of other countries.

Since that time, many international internship and exchange programs have undertaken the same goals and offered students from around the world a chance to do the same: to obtain-- with little sacrifice and ample international funding-- cultural, social and professional experiences in new places while integrating in other national cultures, races, ethnicities and religions without preconceptions and prejudices. It is about promoting genuine friendship among people, a goal for which the great thinkers of humankind have always advocated.

In 2005, Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) and Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) joined this movement through its specialized unit known as InteRDom, which offers internship programs in the Dominican Republic for students from the most important universities in the United States.

In 2009, InteRDom went even further by beginning its Internship Certification Seminar. To date they have certified three groups of Monitors. The purpose of these certifications is to train personnel to be coordinators of internship programs within Dominican companies, state and government institutions and NGOs in order to create a synergy between the academic world and the companies or institutions receiving the interns.


InteRDom directors believed it was important to expand the Internship Certification Program to universities in order to fulfill the triad of the internship parties:

• the intern


• the academic institution


• the company or organization hosting the intern

The academic institution or company hosting the intern should combine efforts to ensure that the internship provides a valuable human educational experience as well as a quality professional experience for the intern. It is about “learning by doing” and establishing a genuine link between the student and the professional at work.

Based on the system theory of Austro-German theoretical biologist, Karl Ludwig Von Bertalanffy, who in 1901 developed the General Systems Theory, which states that everything is interconnected; academic institutions and businesses constitute social cells and interdependent productive sources which interact and provide mutual nourishment.

Both, in their own right, have a great deal of social obligation and responsibility to the populations around them as well as to other institutions, financial as well as political and social, in all countries.

According to this view, the synergy between educational institutions, industry and state institutions is intimately shared and understood; human beings, the product of this synergy, should also possess a mentality in keeping with this vision.

If, furthermore, we delve into the perception of personal competences that govern individual and collective life among human beings within communities, we see clearly that internships, as educational and professional experiences, perfect these competences to produce an individual capable of interacting with his/her fellow human beings as individual and collective entities based on personal and professional knowledge which will, in turn, contribute to the advancement of the general collective.

Indeed we are facing a new concept of internship, a global vision of transforming humans into interns, as well as transforming academic institutions, business and governmental institutions into entities that are responsible for the social and collective well-being.