It is not often middle school students can hear directly from a world leader. On Sept. 25, the students at Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering (CSS) got their chance when Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic, came to visit.

It is not often middle school students can hear directly from a world leader. On Sept. 25, the students at Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering ( CSS ) got their chance when Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic, came to visit.

President Fernández spoke to a packed auditorium of about 250 students, parents and faculty, discussing politics and answering such questions as: What is the most difficult thing about being president? “Managing conflicts,” he replied. What would he be if he weren’t president? A writer, he said.

Fernández was in New York City for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly and was also a featured speaker at Columbia’s annual World Leaders Forum. His trip to CSS stemmed from a key component of his presidential agenda: investing in the Dominican Republic’s youth and education.

“One of our priorities to promote economic and social development has to do with human capital, so that’s education,” said Fernández in an interview. “But we have to look at new models to train our young students how to think, how to solve problems, how to have a modern view, how to think out of the box…CSS is a great model project that we can replicate.”

To that end, Fernández also went to Teachers College for a meeting with Provost Thomas James; Portia Williams, director of international affairs; and Deanna Kuhn, a professor of psychology and education. Fernández plans to modernize and improve the Dominican Republic’s education system, and wants Teachers College to serve as an advisor in that effort.

Later that evening, at a World Leaders Forum talk in Low Library, Fernández said that Teachers College will put together a pilot project—modeled after CSS—in the Dominican Republic. “We need to bring in the most advanced methodologies to overhaul our education system,” he said.

CSS opened last fall with its first class of sixth-graders. Run by the New York City Department of Education in partnership with Columbia and the community, the school is adding an additional grade every year, and ultimately will enroll 650 students from grades six through 12. The middle school—grades six through eight—will serve high performing local students from northern Manhattan, and its students will be primarily Hispanics and African Americans, while the high school will be open to students city-wide.

The partnership with Columbia has mutual benefits. It provides Columbia undergraduate and graduate students teaching experience at the school, where they work with the middle school students in after-school programs and the Harlem Robotics League, in which students compete to design robots. Meanwhile, the CSS students get access to University facilities and resources. The school, which is located on West 123rd Street and Morningside Avenue, will eventually have its permanent home in Manhattanville as part of the University’s long-term expansion.

Jose Maldonado-Rivera, principal at CSS and himself a Teachers College alumnus, said Fernández’s visit “is a unique opportunity for my Hispanic students to see [how] somebody from the barrio…through hard work and dedication, was able to drive himself to the top, to the pinnacle of political power in the Dominican Republic and become president.”

The lesson was not lost on Christian Pimentel, a Dominican-born seventh-grader. Being able to meet the president of his country was a “true inspiration,” he said. Pimentel is concerned that Dominican voices are being heard. “Latinos are just as important as everyone else,” he said. “We want to make sure everyone knows that…we have a say in this world.”

Some students got to have their say. In preparation for the visit, students were asked to write a letter addressing a world leader on a global issue, and several read theirs aloud to Fernández; topics included the U.S. financial crisis, nuclear weapons, oil dependency, climate change, poverty, health care and women’s rights.

For one student, sixth-grader Annette Anderson, the experience made her proud. “A lot of other schools locally never had an opportunity like this,” said Anderson, 11. “This really helps us and builds us up as a community and as a school.”
“

• American Airlines adds a Santo Domingo-New York flight with Boeing 777
• Dominican Tourism offices to open in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Orlando, Boston
• IMF Approves $1.7 Bln Loan To Dominican Republic
• A small Dominican Republic town plagued by birth defects wants to know if a U.S. power company is to blame.
• Eight Out of Every 10 Dominicans Use a Cell Phone
• Miss Dominican Republic to Take OraQuick ADVANCE® Rapid HIV Test to Promote National Latino AIDS Awareness Day Kickoff – Wednesday October 7th, 3pm-6pm
• Guerrilla filmmaking, Dominican style – “La Soga”
• StoryCorps: José Cruz tells his daughter, Grace, about living in Villa Juana, a neighborhood in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, while his mother was living in New York City.
• Puerto Plata – Legendary Dominican Soneros Makes Cleveland Debut at CMA’s VIVA! & Gala series
• Shakira married in Dominican Republic? – Shakira y Antonito se habrían casado en secreto?
• Marc Anthony postergó un concierto que iba a ofrecer el viernes en un escenario dominicano debido a una inflamación en la garganta
• The Dominican Republic is starting to see signs of recovery, leading to more optimism among local and foreign investors.
• Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic will launch joint multi-destination tourism packages that could come on the market starting in September, Puerto Rican tourism authorities announced Monday.
• Immigrant of the Day: Feniosky Peña-Mora (Dominican Republic)
• Microsoft Latin America teams up with Children International to teach under-served children in the Dominican Republic
• Dominican Republic bars consecutive presidential terms
• DIRECTV Más Launches Proyecto Esperanza Benefiting The Orphaned Starfish Foundation – Latin Superstar and Philanthropist Charytin Serves as Ambassador And Kicks off the Campaign at the Ofranato Niños De Cristo in the Dominican Republic
• Rum’s The Word: Introducing Brugal Extra Viejo Rum
• Thoughts on new media in the Dominican Republic
• This week, Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, the author of “A Tale of Two Cities: Santo Domingo and New York after 1950” (Princeton University Press, 2008), will be answering selected readers’ questions about how New York has been transformed by the Dominican settlement and how Dominicans’ lives here have affected life in their native country.