Community College of Rhode IslandDominican Republic dignitary's visit yields international partnership
A delegation from the Dominican Republic, led by that country’s Secretary of State for the Youths Dr. Manuel Crespo, traveled to CCRI at the end of July to sign a unique educational agreement—one that commits to exploring educational collaborations between the college and the Dominican Republic’s system of higher education.
“The Dominican Republic has great potential,” says Associate Professor of Human Services Bill Pellicio, a driving force behind this collaboration. “It’s really reinventing itself.” He adds that educators in the Dominican Republic are investigating community college models as a way to teach adult learners in their country, with CCRI as one of its prime examples. “For many people in the world, education can mean salvation from poverty and suffering,” he says.
As part of the agreement between the college and the Dominican Republic,
programs under discussion are student exchange programs and
curriculum-sharing in the areas of social work and business. Several CCRI
faculty members have already committed to participating in a joint learning
community with their Dominican Republic counterparts.
“We plan to take advantage of such technology as videoconferencing and WebCT
online classrooms to communicate and share with each other,” says CCRI
President Thomas D. Sepe.
These latest developments are a direct result of field research conducted over the past several years by Pellicio. In the summer of 2002, Pellicio, CCRI students Alicia Luzon and Ana Cruz, and Rhode Island School Department social worker Elida Araujo-Picard, visited the Dominican Republic where they toured key social services agencies. They also met with the Minister of Education and representatives of the Universidad de la Tercera Edad—all in an effort to identify that country’s human services training needs. Since passing landmark legislation against family violence in 1996, the Dominican Republic has had an increasing need for training in fields relating to family violence, such as social work, health careers, court personnel and police officers.
Obviously, Pellicio and his students had made a good impression. By December 2002, Dr. Altagracia Nunez, the vice-rector of the universidad, and CCRI President Sepe had signed an initial agreement to explore collaborative projects. And the momentum continued to build. By the summer of 2003, CCRI and URI had developed a joint travel-study program to the Dominican Republic, where students and professionals from Southeastern New England would visit the Caribbean nation during the summer months. “The participants learned to become global citizens,” says Pellicio, who adds that social policies, economics and culture are all inextricably intertwined.
Just as CCRI students have been able to visit the Dominican Republic, so the college hopes to return the hospitality in a meaningful way. Sepe reports that plans are in the works for CCRI to host a group of Dominican students for an extended stay as early as next spring.
