Final Moments in the Dominican Republic

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In my last days at the Dominican Republic, I tried to savor each experience before it was time to leave. This included drinking those delicious and fresh batidas fresas (strawberry smoothies). Another memory that I will take away with me is playing tennis in one of the most beautiful recreational centers Iโ€™ve ever been. The recreational center is called Olympic and it has multiple tennis courts, basketball courts, a track field, a baseball field, a soccer field, and a place to play volley ball. Never have I seen that many courts and fields at one place to host different type of sports.  

I woke up close to 7 oโ€™clock in the morning, and one of the members in my program and I took a taxi to Olympic. He was a bit worried that all the courts would be occupied, but I didnโ€™t think it was possible since it was 8 am. I was mistaken. All of the tennis courts were occupied and wouldnโ€™t be available until 10 am. Wow! Are we going to spend another 30 minutes just to return to our hostel? Nope, instead we found two older men that let us played 2 sets of doubles games with them. I was terrible at first because I hadnโ€™t played tennis in such a long time โ€“ last summer to be exact. Anyways we didnโ€™t win both sets, but that didnโ€™t matter to me. I had a great time and I got to play tennis in the DR โ€“ that was more than enough for me. 

Lashanda Coq

Sak pasรฉ and Hola! My name is Lashanda Coq. Currently, I am a fourth year student at Rutgers University studying Nutritional Science and Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies. Music is a big part of my life and when Iโ€™m not studying or attending classes, I am directing the Liberated Gospel Choir at my college. Besides academia, I am also a part of an all-female gospel acapella trio called, โ€œHarmony.โ€ Whether itโ€™s through music or academia, my passion resides in finding a medium that can help or improve the well-being of peoplesโ€™ lives. For this reason, I want to further my studies on a graduate level and become a health care professional. I was born and raised in New Jersey but my family is from Haiti and came to America in the mid-1980s. Because of this I grew up in a bicultural household where I spoke Haitian Creole at home, but English at school. But this was all in preparation to participate in a one-month service-learning program abroad to the Dominican Republic. There, I will be working with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that advocate in social justice issues affecting the Dominican and Haitian population. More specifically, Iโ€™ll have the ability to with NGOs like RECONOCI.DO or BONO that will be advocating a recently passed law which denaturalized Dominican citizenship from Haitians born in the Dominican Republic since 1929. This concern is dear to my heart since I am of Haitian descent, and by understanding their human struggle makes them my family. I know that this study abroad experience will impact me on a personal level and will help me in making sound decision in my career path.