51 Ordinary Graduation
Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC)

Rector's words

Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dra. Ligia Amada Melo
Madam President of the Board of Regents, Eng. Claudia de Los Santos
Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Board of Regents
Ladies and gentlemen, members of the Academic Council and directors, teachers and collaborators of INTEC
Guest speaker, Ing. Manuel Gomez Achecar
Graduates and Graduates
Family and related
Ladies and Gentlemen

With this act of graduation, we give a symbolic closure to a cycle of special relevance in the life of each of our graduates. Therefore, my first words are to congratulate you on this day of achievement and thank you for the responsibility with which you took on the challenge of developing as professionals. And of course, my congratulations go out to all the people who have provided support throughout the entire journey, highlighting in a special way the grandmothers and grandfathers, fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, daughters and sons, among many others. .

Each of you, male and female graduates, has the right conditions for a successful career. In this sense, let me emphasize that according to the most recent studies, out of every 100 INTEC graduates, more than 90 are working, almost all of them consider that the knowledge acquired at our university was decisive for professional success and the vast majority have a remuneration significantly above the average in their profession. And it is also worth highlighting the unprecedented fact that the two main figures for the next presidential elections will both be INTEC graduates, as is the case of the President, Mr. Danilo Medina, and the opposition candidate, Mr. Luis Abinader.

This allows us to ensure that you, male and female graduates, are not only destined to be the best professionals, but also the greatest leaders of our country. However, in a country like ours, burdened by vast needs and shameful inequalities, great capabilities also come with great compromises. As new graduates of INTEC, each one must ask themselves in what ways they can contribute to improve the living conditions of those less favored, to contribute to the construction of a better country, and it is our hope that they will take on this challenge with talent, creativity, ingenuity, responsibility and commitment that characterize the bees of our hive.

This challenge of human responsibility is also relevant for our institution, which is precisely why it always seeks to contribute its academic capacity to major national issues. In the social sphere, for example, this week INTEC hosted the national launch of the United Nations report on “The Progress of Women in the World”, through which important results were presented on the levels of inequality in women. gender globally. In the field of the economy, INTEC will release next week the results of an unpublished survey on the impact of the electricity crisis on homes and companies, through which information will be available that until now had not been raised in our country and an objective basis will be provided to the discussions of the Electricity Pact currently underway. And in the health sector, INTEC is currently working on initiatives to support the fight against the dengue outbreak, including actions such as the visit of our students to the surrounding schools, and the incorporation of the subject as mandatory material in our pediatric pathology classes. . (On this last aspect, I take the opportunity to thank the Minister of Health, who sent us an expression of gratitude for our initiative and communicated her wish that the other universities join our example).

As can be seen, these initiatives are consistent with our institutional vision, which sets itself the goal of being recognized, nationally and internationally, as a university model. In this regard, let me take a few minutes to share with you some of the most recent advances in our ongoing pursuit of academic excellence. Engineering graduates will be pleased to know that this year the accreditation of three additional programs was achieved with a regional accrediting agency and that we began to accredit all our programs with the most prestigious accrediting agency globally, such as the accrediting company ABET. To the graduates of the Business area, I inform you that we are already in the last stage of an accreditation process of all the programs in that area, with an accrediting agency from the United States, with which we will have a reliable guarantee that our Graduates meet the standards of that country. And graduates of Health Sciences will like to know that an accreditation process with an international accrediting company has also recently begun, which we hope will progress satisfactorily.

The dynamism of the other areas is not far behind. The area of ​​Social Sciences and Humanities has been developing a set of educational innovation projects that will certainly have a transformative impact on the pre-university education system of our country, and its psychology program continues to be a point of reference in the Dominican context. . Finally, I must highlight that the area of ​​Basic and Environmental Sciences recently submitted two doctoral programs for approval, which once launched will make us the first Dominican university to launch its own doctoral program in the field of science and technology. We are therefore at a special moment in our institutional growth process, and we need you, male and female graduates, to continue to feel like essential actors in that process. (And to be fair, I want to express recognition of the guidance and support that INTEC, like all universities in the country, is receiving from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, under the visionary leadership of the Minister, who honors us today with your presence, Dra. Ligia Amada Melo).

In closing, let me now introduce our guest speaker. Dr. Gómez Achécar is the president of the EPSA-LABCO firm, which provides Engineering and Construction Management services. He studied Civil Engineering at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and completed a Master's Degree in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, where he also obtained a Doctorate in Civil Engineering in 1984. He has more than 35 years of professional practice with extensive experience in design and supervision of the construction of large engineering projects, including the technical direction of engineering and supervision of the Jigüey - Aguacate dam; the design and supervision of the rehabilitation and expansion of the main runway at the Punta Cana international airport and the Directorate of the design and supervision of the new runway at that airport; the design of the project for the East Tourist Boulevard in Punta Cana-Bávaro; and the supervision of the Santo Domingo Circunvalación project.

On a personal level, Dr. Gomez Achecar is one of the founding members of the Santo Domingo Herrera Rotary Club, and since 1986 he has been a collaborator of that organization, sponsoring several projects, such as the Armando Rosenberg Home School, which houses more than 700 children. In the family sphere, Dr. Gómez Achécar is married to Ing. Milagros Ramirez (Mrs. Aspasia), with whom he has procreated three children, whose professional level is an eloquent example of the parents' work: Franco, who has a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois; Manuel Octavio, who has a Doctorate in Neuroscience from the City College of New York; and Evelyn, a talented publicist with multiple master's degrees in Television Production. Interestingly, among so many merits, Dr. Gomez has only asked me not to fail to mention his four grandchildren (Stefanos, Melina, and the twins Octavio and Eder).

We received with great applause our guest speaker, Dr. Manuel Gomez Achecar.