A History of our Services

The Instituto Cultural Domínico-Americano (ICDA), usually known simply as the “Domínico-Americano”, was founded in the year 1947 by a group of Dominican and United States citizens who were residing in this country in order to strengthen the bonds of friendship and of culture between the peoples of the United States of America and the Dominican Republic.

The first activity of the ICDA was to encourage teaching in general, as well as culture, thus increasing the knowledge, understanding, and friendship between the Dominican Republic and the United States of America, and forming their mutual understanding, both intellectual and spiritual, through a vast program of cultural relations, and by teaching at different levels.

Ever since its foundation, the ICDA as an institution has always been at the forefront in offering educational services to Dominican society, dominating the market in the teaching of the English tongue, and has been setting standards of high quality and innovation. It has also been an important column for the expansion of national culture, as well as its projection in particular among the U.S. citizens and British residents in this country, and among other foreign residents in general. It has also dedicated itself to projecting knowledge of the values and the culture of the United States among Dominicans, through its vast program of cultural relations.

At present, the ICDA offers a vast spectrum of academic and cultural activities, which define it as a real corporation with a wide scope of high quality educational services, cultural activities, and support to the community. The choice of programs is the following:

Language School, with an English as a Foreign language (EFL), and a program of Spanish for Foreigners. (EDI)
The Pre-School program
The Colegio Domínico-Americano
The Escuela Técnica Superior (ETS) (Technical school, junior college)
The Cultural Department
The Lincoln Library
The Management Center
The Educational Counseling Office (ECO)
The Universidad Domínico-Americana (UNICDA) (Dominican American University – 4 year college)

In other words, its ends have been oriented in two important directions:

1) The educational aspect, which includes proposing and carrying out educational programs of so many forms and levels that they now go from the extracurricular model to closed programs, and from the basic levels, the first year at the university or technical school, to the final year of the university and to postgraduate studies; also

2) The cultural aspect, which includes activities to promote culture in general, with departments that are specifically dedicated to painting, dance, voice and rhythm, the theater, poetry, etc. Both aspects have been excellent channels for social and cultural contacts and exchange between the Dominican Republic and the United States of America.

One thing that we must bear in mind when talking about the history of the Domínico-Americano is that it has never lost sight of the needs of Dominican society, which it is called to serve, to contribute towards a greater sustainable human development, and the strengthening of our democratic values, thereby contributing to the creation of a real culture of peace and concord among us.

The Dominico’s rapport with the Dominican community has always been the basis for its way of acting as an institution, and for the pertinence of the plans and actions undertaken in the fields in which it concentrates its activities: Education, culture, research, academic counseling, and services to the community. It has always been the Dominico’s harmony with society that has imposed on the ICDA the commitment to respond to said community with the same institutional dynamism, marked growth, manifold and diverse offer of high quality in both academics and culture; and it has been the cause of its present eminent position in society and on the market.

In order to prove its social calling, it would only be fitting to give a brief outline of the landmarks that have marked its institutional growth and its services to Dominican society.

1947: The ICDA was founded. It was located on Calle Mercedes, in the Colonial City. It was, at that time, the only cultural institute in the everyday life in the city of Santo Domingo. It organized thousands of cultural activities of different kinds, which were carried out daily. We also lent out books and long play records. English courses began almost immediately because the community needed them. There were about 1,000 students at the time of the first registration. Thus, the EFL program had become the forte of the Institution, having responded to the learning needs of tens of thousands of children, adolescents, and adults. To show its dynamism and importance, and talking in terms of numbers, during the last five years the Domínico has maintained an average yearly registration of over ten thousand students.

1950: At the beginning of this decade, the Domínico had grown so much as an institution that it became necessary to move to Avenida Pasteur at Calle Santiago, in Gazcue. At that time, it was still the most important cultural institute of the city. At the beginning of the 1970’s it would have to move again, to Avenida Pasteur corner of Avenida Independencia, because of the growth in its registration and the great participation of the public in its cultural activities.

1968: In the presence of the President of the Republic, the ICDA inaugurated its own locale at Ave. Abraham Lincoln #21.

1970: A new locale is open to the public, one that was specially built to house the library of the Institution. It also offered support to the courses taught at the Institute; most of the collections were reference books to be consulted for the Cultural Department, and in general of interest to the community. It was open to all. The first floor of the new library was used as a meeting hall, and the cultural activities were held there.

It is important to point out at this moment that, all through the 1970’s, the Dominico offered to researchers, intellectuals, and journalists a series of professional seminars, where registration was free. These were offered as a contribution to bringing up to date culture in our country. These seminars were high-level activities, of a great academic and cultural excellence, which were carried out every year and which involved distinguished figures from the arts, the universities, and the research centers of the United States, who presented and discussed with their Dominican counterparts problems and perspectives that were new to their fields of study or work areas.

1972: This year was very important to the growth of the ICDA. As a matter of fact, it was when the Academic Building was inaugurated in the presence of the President, and the Secretarial School was founded and started functioning. This was the first new program, serving as a complement to the ICDA’s already classic teaching of English, and its cultural center.

1980: The cultural complex, which now bears the name “Patrick N. Hughson”, was inaugurated in the presence of the President of the Republic. That same year, the Pre-School in English became the second complementary program.

1981: The Colegio of the ICDA was founded, in order to provide a balanced educational program taught in English while preserving the Spanish language, as well as Dominican history and culture.

1989: After concluding a rigorous process of evaluation of the formal and factual components, the technicians from the Consejo Nacional de Educación Superior (National Council for Higher Education – CONES) concluded that the project presented by the ICDA, which would create an Institute for Higher Education, at the level of a two-year college, was sound and viable, and to that effect, the organism that regulates higher education in the Dominican Republic recommended to the Central Government that this project be approved. Thus, through Decree no. 226 of June 6th, 1989, the ICDA was enabled to issue degrees at an Associate’s level in the fields of Computer Science, Tourism, Accounting, Business Administration, Education with an English minor, and executive bilingual secretarial skills. With this, the ICDA became one of the first institutions of the subsystem of Dominican higher education to attain the category of Higher Institute, thus becoming, to the satisfaction of its founders, a model for other institutions (then emerging) in this subsection to follow.

1992: This year saw the first eighth grade graduation. The same thing happened year after year, beginning in pre-school. That year also saw the end of the construction of the two first stories of the classroom building of the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) building. Its construction was made possible by a donation toward the development of intensive English courses, promoted by the Secretariado Técnico de la Presidencia and by USAID.

In December of the same year, the Domínico deposited at the Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) (Bank for Interamerican Development), through the Fundación APEC de Crédito Educativo (APEC Foundation for Educational Loans --FUNDAPEC), a project to encourage short-term careers in this country. Said plan was to be carried out during the five years from 1993 to 1998, and its objectives were as follows:

“To contribute toward the formation of qualified associates with ample knowledge of the English tongue in the areas of Tourism, Administration, Accounting, Computer Science, and Bilingual Executive Secretarial Skills.

“To develop a program of updating human resources, in order to help solve the deficit of professional training in areas of high priority to the development of the Country, as are the subsections of Tourism, Free Zones, and the farming industry.”

Once more, with this project, the Domínico showed it was capable of innovating in the educational field. The ICDA project was adopted as it had been proposed.

1993: This marked the beginning of the process of completing, little by little, by growing year after year, the secondary school program, until the Colegio reached the 12th year of high school. In the year 1997, the first high school graduation was celebrated.

1994: Upon the execution of the BID-FUNDAPEC project, a specially designed building was built to house the Escuela Técnica Superior. Equipment and materials were bought, and teacher-training courses were given in specific fields related to the technical and associates’ programs: workshops and seminars about strategies, methodology, and learning techniques.

1995: The Lincoln Library was founded (Biblioteca Lincoln --BL) to provide services to the schools of the Instituto Cultural Domínico-Americano: the Colegio Domínico-Americano, (CDA), the Language School (EDI), and the Escuela Técnico Superior (ETS). The Lincoln Library has a collection of approximately 10,000 documents of different kinds: Scientific, technical, about the humanities, and recreational. Together with the Centro de Recursos Audiovisuales (CRA)(which is responsible for the administration of audiovisual equipment, offers technical assistance to the users, and which also administers the loan of such equipment), the Lincoln Library has as its objective to better the quality of education offered through the different educational programs offered by the Institute.

1999: The Domínico founds two academic extensions of its EFL (English as a Foreign Language) programs. One operates in San Cristóbal, at the Politécnico Loyola, and the other in the Zona Oriental of the City of Santo Domingo.

2000: A five-story building is built to house the administrative offices; said building has a gathering hall on the first floor.

2001: The new administrative building is inaugurated and occupied. CONES grants approval to reclassify the Escuela Técnica Superior as a University, through Resolution no. 006-2001. This resolution has been ratified by Decree no. 389-01 of the Executive Power, issued March 20th. The new university is known as the “Universidad Domínico-Americana”, UNICDA. During this year, work has been done to better the physical facilities of the area occupied by UNICDA, and on approving and leaving in working order the academic and organizational structure. Teaching first began on Monday, September 3rd.

During this same year, there was a process of reinforcement of the cultural department, in order to offer a more varied program of activities, thus increasing the participation of the new public and drawing a larger number of young people of the community to participate in cultural events. There was also a marked interest in diffusing among Dominicans the importance of knowing the language, and knowing about the culture, of North America. In this manner, the Dominican Republic will be able to successfully meet the challenges we shall face because of the coming Free Trade Agreement for the Americas, which is due to come into effect during the year 2005.

The ICDA has also, within this same context, put into operation a department for the planning, coordination, promotion, and evaluation of exchange programs of different types. The types and scopes of action of such exchange programs will be of the following order: Academic, cultural, informative, community, and inter-institutional. With this, we are trying to consolidate potential and opportunities that stem from their work for the human, cultural, and educational development of Dominican society. In order to obtain said objectives, the institution is beginning by creating a website that will allow it to grow within this scope and to continue offering, bettering, and diffusing the manifold services it offers in favor of the development of our community.

A Gem from South Dakota (Sheila Rioce-Wray)