In 2017, the Dominican Day Parade introduced their first scholarship after the organization decided that they had strayed too far from their mission statement to not only celebrate the community but to also uplift it.
“The more empowered you are, the better the opportunities because it’s more likely that the leadership in society does right by you,” said Silvio Torres-Saillant, a former Dominican Day Parade Scholarship Committee Chair. “If you’re disempowered, a Congress member can come in and just parade him or herself in the neighborhood and give out candy and feel that it is sufficient to win the goodwill of the community.”
In August, the organization raises funds for its scholarship through public donations and an annual gala held at iconic landmarks in New York. The gala has historically been a part of the parade, but it is now focused on raising money for students pursuing higher education.
This year’s gala was held on Aug. 9 at the Greentree Country Club in upstate New York with tickets prices ranging up to $5,300. All of the proceeds from the event will go into funding scholarships for 2020.
Torres-Saillant, an English professor at Syracuse University, said that a majority of the scholarship funds are raised at the gala due to large contributions from philanthropists. The organization has seen an increase in donations for scholarships with funding jumping from $100,000 in 2018 to $200,000 this year.
Scholarships recipients are notified in the spring of their achievement. The only requirements for the award are that the recipient be of Dominican descent, a high school senior, undergraduate or graduate student and have a 3.0 or higher GPA. No essay is required, and the organization says that the application takes less than five minutes to complete.
In 2018, 29 students received the award, but due to the increase in funding the organization was able to give scholarships to nearly 30 more students this year. Most recipients received $10,000 and two of the students had previously won the award.
According to a recipient list provided by the organization, a large majority of the students are attending community or public colleges. $10,000 is roughly the cost of in-state tuition in 2019 at most 4-year public colleges in the United States according to the College Board.
Although the Dominican Day Parade is doing its part to send Dominicans to college today, the organization has had its share of controversy in the past. Professor Torres-Saillant noted that the organization nearly lost its status as a non-profit in 2015 when it was under unchecked management.
In 2015, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman put out a press release stating that Nelson Peña, the former president of the Dominican Day Parade, was banned from participating in any of the organization’s affairs after years of mismanaging the non-profit.
According to the statement, Peña had no functioning boards of directors, failed to maintain proper books and records and also failed to file the annual reports required by non-profits under State law.
Peña had also been the target of multiple lawsuits in the past, with one lawsuit filed in Manhattan’s Supreme Court against him and the organization after failing to pay back more than $75,000 in loans and services.
In 2011, Rafael Alvarez, then-president of Alvareztax, also said in a press conference that he had obtained a court order against Peña for violating a contract. Alvarez said that Peña had been taking advantage of Dominican patriotism to keep other businesses from speaking out about him and his organization.
After Peña was banned from the Dominican Day Parade in 2015, the organization was recreated with a valid board of directors. The Dominican Day Parade of today is legally a different organization from its predecessor ran by Peña according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It was this Dominican Day Parade that created the scholarship two years later.
But the issue with education doesn’t start with college for Dominicans in New York City.
Education has long been one of the main concerns for the community in Washington Heights. In 1999, George Washington High School was shut down due to poor performance and four small schools opened in what is now the George Washington Educational Campus.
One of those schools, the High School for Health Careers and Sciences, was slated for closure last year in 2018 due to poor performance but was saved by protests from the community.
“Low-income communities and neighborhoods with school districts are not a priority for the city because those districts are seen as non-crucial for the leadership of the city,” Torres-Saillant said. “If they don’t do well, the consequences won’t be so dire for leadership in terms of losing their jobs.”
The George Washington Educational Campus schools aren’t the only educational facilities that are struggling in the neighborhood.
According to the New York City Department of Education, the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School, a K-12 school where 94% of students are Hispanic and mostly of Dominican descent, has a four-year graduation rate that is “far below average” and only 58% of students have over a 90% attendance rate.
Dominican educators and youth workers in attendance at the parade on Aug. 11 said that the event was important for their students to attend so that they could learn the importance of their heritage.
Cynthia Carrion, the owner of Muchacha Power and director of community development at School in the Square in Washington Heights, said that the parade was vital for instilling Dominican pride in her two toddlers and some students that she brought to the event.
School in the Square is a public charter school for grades six through eight. According to the Department of Education, 89% of the students are Hispanic and admission priority is given to residents in the Washington Heights and Inwood area.
The school day runs longer than traditional public schools to allow for scheduling of additional periods of math and English. Classes are held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but students can arrive as early as 8 a.m. and stay until 5:15 p.m. Tutoring is offered before and after school and also on Saturdays.
Eddie Silverio, director of youth services at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center in Washington Heights, also joined in praising the work that the Dominican Day Parade was doing for the community.
“Education is one of the primary things that we have to do for our young people,” said Silverio while getting Alianza Dominicana’s float ready for the parade. “Dominicans have been coming in numbers since the ‘60s and we’re now on our second generation of Dominican Americans. We have to ensure that education is key.”
Silverio, who attended this year’s gala, said that he mentors hundreds of Dominican students in Washington Heights every year at the cultural center and three of them received a scholarship from the Dominican Day Parade.
The parade has a history in New York City spanning over 30 years. The event’s audience extends outside of the city’s boundaries and televises Dominican pride. Now, the organization has also helped nearly 100 young Dominicans pursue higher education.
Professor Torres-Saillant said that the source of pride provided by the organization is required for Dominicans to be successful in their pursuit of education.
“It’s access, it’s the degree of empowerment of the parents,” he said. “You need some degree of empowerment to dream of reaching the stars.”
