Encuentro Dominicano

https://www.creighton.edu/encuentro/

Academic Director: Margarita Dubocq
Campus Coordinator: Jill Muegge, Global Engagement Office

Encuentro Dominicano is Creighton University’s premier academic service-learning program in the Dominican Republic.

Encuentro Dominicano centers around service-learning and building community with fellow students and Dominicans – all while experiencing the rich and vibrant culture of the Dominican Republic. Participants will experience service, academic life, and immersion trips living and working with Dominican families in a rural community. Encuentro embodies the Jesuit mission of promoting justice, striving for excellence, and dedication to the truth.

Follow Encuentro on Instagram (@creightoninthedr) and Facebook (@encdominicano).

Academics

Encuentro Dominicano students are required to take the three courses listed below, and may choose from the three electives available each semester for a total of up to 18 credit-hours.

  • EDP 362 Dominican Republic in Context, 3CR (CORE fulfillment: Doing Social Science)
  • EDP 461 The Power of One: Poverty, Sustainable Development, 3CR (CORE fulfillment: Intersections)
  • Intensive Dominican Spanish, 100 - 400 levels available, 3CR

Various electives are available each semester to Encuentro Dominicano students including a Latin America Cinema course taught in partnership with a local university in Santiago and a rotating elective course taught by a visiting Creighton University faculty member. For more details visit the Encuentro website.

Service-Learning

Encuentro Dominicano employs service-learning pedagogy through weekly volunteer service in the city of Santiago, as well as two cultural immersions in local campo communities. Ample opportunity is provided for guided reflection on all that students experience during their time in the Dominican Republic.

Life in the Dominican Republic

Encuentro students will live in dorms on the Misión ILAC campus that house four to six students per room. The ILAC Center is a beautiful, serene, and secure campus located just outside of Santiago city center. The ILAC Center has served the rural campo communities of the Dominican Republic since 1973.  All of the international groups that visit the Dominican Republic are assisted by the long standing connections in the country established by the Dominican staff of ILAC/CESI.

In order to help students fully immerse into Dominican culture, Student Life provides free excursions and activities in which students can choose to participate.  In the past, cultural activities have included:

  • Baseball games to see the local professional team, Las Aguilas Cibaenas
  • Tours of the historical museum Casa Museo Hermanas Mirabal
  • Trips to the mountains or the beach