The Masters School welcomed students from the Babeque School in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, October 10. Last spring, Masters sent its own small group of students to Babeque located in Santo Domingo.
The cultural exchange program was run by Babeque Administrator Margarita (Maggie) Prieto and Masters Dean of Global Studies, Robert Fish PhD, organizing activities, flights, and homestays for the students.
Some students stayed with host families in the Westchester and New York City area, while others were hosted in some dorms on campus. Prieto had students fill out forms to see where they would best fit. In some cases, some students from Babeque were placed with Masters students that they hosted last year. Prieto said, “It comes down to how the kids feel with the family and how the family is open to receiving that person. Not because of their likes or dislikes, traditions or backgrounds, just being open to having the kids and being a part of the experience of being a host,” Prieto said.
Their 10-day stay in the U.S. was jam packed with activities for them to partake in. The activities were organized by Babeque’s other faculty chaperone, Nelly Mejia. Babeque students went to classes with Masters students, watched the Fall play and sports games, explored the Masters campus and took advantage of all its facilities, made and connected with new friends, and they explored New York City. Their focus was for the Dominican students to take in and experience what life was like in New York, and they placed heavy emphasis on getting to know and connect with as many new people as possible.
Some of the Babeque students shared their thoughts about visiting Masters and talked about their favorite experiences on campus during their trip with Tower
It’s really nice to have like a place not only that you can study in but also where you can live and have a life here on campus. We go to class, and then we go to the dorms, and we can just chill out, and we can play. We can watch TV, we can study together, and each of us can talk and be together to have some fun besides school. In the Dominican Republic, we seniors only talk with seniors and juniors only with juniors. Here you can have a senior talking with a junior. Many grades in the school are much more united here.”
— Rafael Ramierez '24
I’m staying in the dorm. That’s new for me because I always lived with my mother. It’s a great experience for me to have so many people in the dorms that can I talk to, it’s fantastic. To have these friends is like having a community, and I love it so much. The classes here are more dynamic. It’s a conversation. We don’t have that, the teachers say what you’ll do, and that’s it. That is a big difference for me.”
— Lina Desirée Peralta García '24
