Objective

Our key objective is the building of social and academic support networks among participants, particularly among those living in adjacent regions. We have observed one of the major issues in our community to be the lack of awareness of and communication between collegiate and community-based Dominican groups who, despite sharing similar interests and existing in the same general area, continue to operate independently. We believe that promoting collaboration between these Dominican student groups will help create a more comfortable, more familiar environment for Dominican students, thus positively affecting the waning rates of retention and graduation that currently plague Dominican collegiate community. We also believe that sponsoring this kind of networking will lead to each participant gaining a greater understanding of his own community, as well as foster a heightened desire to take socially significant action against the issues highlighted throughout the Conference.