GFDD/Funglode Hosts the President and Representatives of St. Francis College During Santo Domingo Visit

February 27, 2019

GFDD/Funglode Hosts the President and Representatives of St. Francis College During Santo Domingo Visit

Share on:

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – The Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and its sister organization in the Dominican Republic, la Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (Funglode) hosted representatives from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York during a five-day exchange in Santo Domingo.

During their trip, the St. Francis College representatives, who included the university’s president, Dr. Miguel Martínez-Saenz, shared experiences and promoted the college as well as its scholarship program to Dominican students and leaders in the Dominican education sector.

Accompanying the president of St. Francis College were Robert Oliva, Director of Admissions, as well as Monique Moore Pryor, the Chief of Staff.

The coordinator of GFDD’s InteRDom program, Manuel Medrano, coordinated the St. Francis College leaders’ stay in Santo Domingo.

The leaders held meetings with students from New Horizon School, St. George School and Instituto Technológico de las Americas (ITLA) and also met with the vice-ministers of higher-education in the Dominican Republic.

Additionally, on Tuesday, February 19, President Martínez Saenz led a conference on “Creando el futuro un estudiante a la vez” (Creating the Future One Student at a Time) at the Funglode Auditorium in Santo Domingo.

At the start of that event, Medrano presented the president in front of an audience interested in educational topics.

In an interactive presentation Dr. Martínez Saenz spoke about his dedication to personalized education as well as his experience as the president of one of the top US institutions of higher learning in New York City and all of the Northeast United States. Dr. Martínez Saenz explained that much of his leadership is based on the belief that learning is more valuable when teachers and students can connect and understand one another. For this reason, St. Francis College has a maximum of just 22 students per classroom.

Medrano concluded the conference by thanking President Martínez Saenz and his colleagues for their visit to Santo Domingo.

The collaboration between St. Francis College and GFDD/Funglode complements InteRDom’s mission to promote academic and cultural exchange between students, universities, professionals, businesses and non-governmental organizations on both national and international scales.