The Dominican Perspective Club wants to spread awareness of the Dominican culture all around the campus, according to its club members.
“The main purpose of the club is to inform the school about our culture and to participate in the Dominican Republic Endo-Community Service,” said President Masiel Mejia.
In a phone conversation, Mejia, 21, said that she has been an active member of the club since her sophomore year. Mejia, of the Bronx, majoring in economics and minoring in Spanish, said the club was created about 32 years ago.
She, Susanna Romero, Steve Vouyiouklis, and Anthony Peters, have been active members of this club since their freshmen or sophomore years. Last January their club organized an AIDS Awareness trip to the Dominican Republic for two weeks, said Mejia. They scheduled workshops, gave out condoms to teenagers, visited an orphanage for children with Aids, and gave out toys for Three Kings Day. The toys had been collected at Hunter. Mejia said, “It was very effective because we got so much work done, and the people in the Dominican Republic didn’t know what we were there for until we were leaving them.”
Mejia, a Dominican, said, ironically, that there were few Dominicans in the club. “The club has contained the least amount of Dominicans this past year; it mostly consists of Asians now,” said Mejia, who also said being a Dominican was not requirement for club membership. “The only problem is, we have very few students that are willing to carry it on,” said Mejia, who expects to graduate this spring.
Susanna Romero, 21, majoring in English Language Arts and minoring in classics, said that she has been a member of the club since she was a freshman. Romero, who is Puerto Rican and Filipino, said, “We only have eight active members, but we probably have 20 to 30 members in total, maybe even more.”
Dominicans, Chinese, and Colombians in the club, she said, “nd who knows what other nationalities there are, we are mixed and we welcome all.”
Romero said that the club meets about three to five times a week in Thomas Hunter Hall Room 307. “We never have real meetings, they are just times when we chill with one another and talk to each other,” said Romero. She said they sit around and talk about work, school, guys, girls, and club problems. “Sometimes, Anthony Peters dances with the girls to a nice salsa, Bachata, or Merengue, whichever song is playing at the moment,” said Romero.
Twenty-one-year-old Steve Vouyiouklis, of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, has been a member of the Dominican Perspective Club since he was a sophomore. He said he was Greek he “and I do not discriminate.” Vouyiouklis said he irregularly attends the club meetings because he is also the president of the Greek Hellenistic Club.
Vouyiouklis said that the club doesn’t have any serious problems, “Given that most members work and do other things, it would require much more time for them to really make a drastic change,” he said.
Peters, 23, has been an active member of the club since 2006. This student from Brooklyn, who is majoring in history, is Trinidadian. He said it has become the club’s goal to travel to the Dominican Republic annually in order to run the AIDS awareness workshops, and give out supplies to the less fortunate people living there.
“Meetings are contingent on the schedules of the members,” said Peters. He said they usually take place when events are coming up.
Peters said, “I don’t see any problems with the club, I just hope that after my generation leaves, the younger ones will be able to prolong the life of the club.”
“The trip we made in January was great, I don’t know if it will ever happen again, but it would be a shame if the younger generations would not continue to carry it on,” he also said.
The WORD’s Jocelyn Davoodzadeh can be reached at Jdavoodz@gmail.com