Dominican Pamela Rosario Earns a Degree from Harvard

Dominican Pamela Rosario Earns a Degree from Harvard
Cambridge, Massachusetts 7/12/2013

Dominican student Pamela Michelle Rosario Pérez, recently earned a degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from Harvard University, which she attended on a 2009 merit scholarship for her leadership qualities and outstanding academic performance.

…, Pamela fulfilled her dream of bringing together Dominican students on campus; she co-founded and was president of the Dominican Students at Harvard Association.

When handed her diploma, Rosario Pérez had the Dominican flag drapedon her graduation gown along with the logo of the sorority to which she belonged, Omega Phi Beta (???). The scope of Omega Phi Beta includes national philanthropy and, among other things, to raise awareness about all forms of violence affecting women.

During her years at Harvard, Pamela fulfilled her dream of bringing together Dominican students on campus; she co-founded and was president of the Dominican Students at Harvard Association. “When I arrived at Harvard there was no Dominican Students Association but I am leaving with the satisfaction of having founded one and leaving it with a $10,000 fund raised at our first annual dinner which I organized with lots of love,” said Pamela.

She was also secretary and events coordinator of the Latin Force (Fuerza Latina), an organization that seeks to encourage cultural diversity at Harvard while creating a support system for Latinos in their academic efforts and extracurricular pursuits. Through this, she organized an event sponsored by ethnic and cultural groups from universities in the Boston area to discuss cultural insensitivity in the universities.

When awarding her a scholarship several years ago, William R. Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aidat Harvard, he said he was certain that Pamela Rosario would make important contributions during her time at the university.

Pamela also worked as a research assistant in the Neuroscience of Psychopathology Laboratory where she carried out tests on human subjects, evaluated and compared the results of past experiments in peer-reviewed research articles.

She was a mentor and coordinator of the Strong Women, Strong Girls programfor which she earned the well-deserved “Mentor of the Year 2011” award.

This program educates girls from underdeveloped communities about strong women throughout history with the goal of encouraging girls to become strong women. The program also promoted healthy activities to instill young people with a sense of duty to their communities.

She founded the Rosario-Decena Leadership Studies Program, a tutoring program in honor of her late grandmother, MaríaDecena, with the idea of continuing to provide bright children from poor communities the tools they need to be successful in the United States.

In addition,she played the position of wing on the female rugby team where she earned the nickname, Night Fury. While attending Harvard Summer School in Paris, she studied art and European history and worked on a documentary film about the lives of Latin Americans living in the center and south of France.

At the moment, she is the director of political campaign for Dennis Benzan who is running for a seat on the Cambridge city council.In 2009, she worked as the assistant director of Internal Communication when Mr. Benzan was running for State Senator.

Pamela, named “Latina of the Month” by Society Pages Magazine’s Spanish version, is the daughter of journalist Julie Pérez Terrero and former major league and Cibaeña Eagles baseball player, Melvin Rosario. Upon her arrival in the United States, she lived with her paternal grandparents Gregorio Rosario and her aunts Anny, María Victoria and Elizabeth Rosario.

She went to the ColegioRestauración del Ensanche Kennedy primary school in Santo Domingo, where she was born. While still in elementary school, she won various academic awards and excelled in various competitions for children in Miami where she competed against the entire United States. She gave her high school valedictorian speech in English and in Spanish to some 600 students among whom she was number one in her class at Egg Harbor Township School District.