Dominican Republic, Santiago
http://ciee.org/
Apply early. Students are accepted on a first come first serve basis.
Santiago de los Caballeros, the second largest city in the Dominican Republic, is surrounded by mountains. Places of historical, cultural, and ecological interest are nearby and easy to get to, and it is just a little over an hour's drive to the Atlantic Coast. Known as La Ciudad Corazón (City of the Heart), Santiago is the commercial and cultural center of the fertile Cibao Valley region. Although it is a growing city with a population exceeding 700,000, Santiago retains many features of a small town, and Santiaguero hospitality is known far and wide.
The program is designed for students who have taken two years of college-level Spanish and would like to pursue training in advanced conversation and grammar.All participants must take a minimum of fifteen credit hours worth of courses during the semester. Students take a required language course, the CIEE core course, and two or three Caribbean or Latin American area studies courses, TESL or community service, and courses in dance, art, and sports. At the start of the semester, all CIEE students are tested to ascertain their oral and written Spanish level. Students are then placed in one of three distinct academic tracks (Advanced Level I, II, or III) according to their language proficiency, each with a different configuration of both required and elective courses available.
All participants must enroll in a Spanish language course, the CIEE core course Contemporary Dominican Republic: Political and Socioeconomic Processes, and three elective courses. Elective course offerings vary depending on the language level into which students have placed. According to the results of an on-site language proficiency examination at the beginning of the program, students are placed into one of three levels which determine the required core course and electives they may take.
CIEE has engaged in fulfilling its mission “to help people gain understanding, acquire knowledge, and develop skills for living in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world. The Service-Learning program serves this mission by providing a framework for students to fulfill their educational and personal goals while bridging relationships in the communities in which their learning takes place. In this sense, Service-Learning takes theory to practice to meet the challenges of social problems and closes the circle on an experiential learning cycle, while providing benefits to all those who are involved with the program. Students are required to draw upon learned and new knowledge and reflect on these experiences through the analytic scope of research and observation methods drawn upon from the core course. Likewise, the language coursework is framed on the foundations of Spanish grammar, but focuses heavily on expanding everyday vocabulary and communication skills with regard to issues in community development and service work in order for students to better communicate and understand the community in which they work.
All students take the three-part core course in poverty and development, research and investigative methods, and community management and practicum, a Spanish course at their level, and a capstone project that draws upon all other elements of the program.
Housing and all meals are included in the program fee. Students live in Dominican private homes, and meals are taken at the place of residence. Housing assignments are based on questionnaires that students submit to CIEE and are made by the Office of International Students at PUCMM. The families live within walking distance of PUCMM. Students and their families are asked to speak only Spanish.
The Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) is a private, non-profit institution of higher education dedicated to superior teaching. Founded in 1962, PUCMM has been ranked by the Inter-American Development Bank as the best academic institution of higher learning in the Dominican Republic. It has three academic divisions: social sciences and humanities, engineering sciences, and health sciences. With a population of approximately 10,000 students and more than 700 faculty members, PUCMM offers the academic resources, support services, and physical facilities of a typical Latin American educational institution.
Full-time Northeastern student, 2.75 GPA Liberal Arts, 3.0 Service Learning, and middler (third) year or above.
Applications are available at OISP, 10 BV.
$21,400 per Semester for the 2009/2010 academic year. Includes: tuition, housing, meals, and round-trip airfare via Boston.
"The best experience of my life occurred in the Dominican Republic. I couldn't have chosen a better program to accomplish my goals of: improving my Spanish skills, submersing myself in a new culture, gaining new viewpoints on both my own culture and that of others, and being able to lend a hand and make a difference where it's needed. The opportunities for growth and self-reflection were endless in a place where poverty confronts wealth and beauty meets a cold and hard reality."
Tara Haughney, Fall 2006
