By DeAngela Alexander
On February 4 2012, OYE held it’s first official
meeting for its’ 55 scholarship recipients. Amongst the crowd of eager faces
were three students who received a thunderous applause when their names were
called from the roster. Nathaly Adilene Alberto
Santos, Oscar Ruben Suazo Dominquez, and Samuel Adonay Reyes are the newest
members to be join OYE.
This past week one of the OYE staff members had the
opportunity to sit down and do a two part interview with Oscar Ruben Suazo
Dominguez. This young man has a smile that lights up any room,
and a calm demeanor that is very endearing. After explaining to Oscar how the
interview process would work, he smiled from ear to ear with such delight.
Oscar seemed excited to know that he would be featured on OYE’s blog.
Oscar is 12 years old and he attends Notre Dame.
After being asked how he found out about OYE, he responded by saying that
Fabiola Oro, one of the coordinators at OYE, referred him. Oscar and his mother
Gloria are family friends with Fabiola and the rest of her family. Oscar’s
favorite subject is natural science, and when he gets older he would like to be
an architect. Oscar, like many of the kids his age, likes to play soccer, watch
movies, paint, and make new friends in school. After speaking about all of the
things he enjoyed the last thing he added was that he enjoyed studying as well.
Oscar was asked what he was looking forward to most
when he came into the OYE office on Saturday. He said, after taking some time
to think, that he is looking forward to the important “talks” he will have. He
then went on to say that he is also looking forward to learning about new
topics. Through OYE’s capacity building workshops Oscar will hear and learn
about various social issues. After the interview Oscar politely got up from the
Oro’s kitchen table, thanked me for interviewing him, and headed back home.
In the second part of the interview Oscar spoke
about personal challenges, fears, wishes, and he ended the interview with a
couple of words to describe himself. Being in his home this time giving the
interview one could see that his mother Gloria was very proud of him. There
were pictures from his graduation, medals that he had won, and various art
projects hanging on the wall. Gloria smiled the whole time. Oscar, as he had
done before, answered each question thoughtfully.
After being asked what he would wish for if someone
granted him the opportunity to have just one, he said that he wished to go to
college to study architecture. He also expressed a desire to work in another
country. One of Oscar’s biggest fears is “not passing school.” It is safe to
say that his education is very important to him. The next question was hard for
Oscar to answer. When asked what the most difficult thing in his life was, he
answered that it was not having a father around.
Despite not having a father present, Oscar seems to
have a good outlook on life; he also has a clear direction of where he wants to
go. The last question that was asked was “If you could use one word to describe
yourself, what would that word be?” With little hesitation Oscar responded with
“intelligent” and “friendly.” Although only one word was asked, one could not
object to them both. Oscar is indeed a friendly individual with a bright future
ahead of him.
DeAngela Alexander is an OYE intern and student at Mary Baldwin College. 
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