#dominicanrepublic

Hello everyone! 

Welcome to our last episode of 2023. 

This week I am introducing the outstanding Orville Morales onto the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast. Orville has had 20 years experience working in activism and education, serving as campaign manager for the public goods project as well as working at Montclair State University as an adjunct professor. These experiences led him to open Morales and Associates, an organization meant to drive people-focused decision making in different organizations, with its slogan being “power to people”. 

Orville Morales’s life began in a state of dual immigration, as he spent some of his childhood in New Jersey and some in the Dominican Republic. During this time, he struggled with identity, he felt stuck in between two worlds and eventually he came out creating his own definition of his identity rather than simply accepting what others told him he was. 

His mission over the last 20 years has been to inspire people to realize that they matter. Morales “decided to become an educator to moderate discussions of others and create a runway for people to prepare themselves to get involved” with impacting government, becoming activists, advocating for change. This includes people who align with any and all backgrounds, political statuses, and beliefs. Within his experience, he has come across those who refuse to accept certain ways of being or ideas. On addressing those who are deemed closed minded, Orville states, “we have to be willing to accept human paradox”. He recommends giving those who disagree with you “grace” when entering a difficult conversation. 

Through his work at Morales and Associates, Orville aims to “help people get involved in the decision making, not just the reactions to the decisions” Morales references the heated political climate during covid as an example of what he works to prevent, seeking to direct individuals away from heated debates amongst each other and towards organizing in an attempt to enact lasting change. He lives by the idea, “voices should be felt rather than just heard”. 

However, Orville admits to the fact that his line of work can easily lead to burnout, and explains how he avoids this by training nonprofit leaders. By pouring his wisdom into others, he avoids burnout and creates a collaborative mission to “work with institutions to change them, not necessarily wait for the institutions to change”. Morales has seen hope more than anything throughout his years working in his practice. He has witnessed people of all ages be able to “envision a brighter future” through collaborating with organizations addressing health, housing, and food insecurity. Orville Morales can be found and contacted through his website, moralesandassociates.com, or on linkedin under his name. He recommends people to definitely get involved and engaged in the work of being a changemaker and he has proven through his excellent achievements that it is in fact a fulfilling and necessary position. 

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram @todayisthedayliveit. 
Have a great week everyone!

Jodi

Note: Views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast.

Dominican Republic is discussed for 26 minutes with fun facts

over 200 more episodes giving fun mind-blowing facts about different locations around the World and their cuisine can be found on your favorite Podcast platform, including Spotify, IHeartRadio, Amazon Music and many more or you can simply click this link https://learn-about-world-cuisine.simplecast.com

If you were retiring on a U.S. military pension and wanted to live a comfortable life, where would you go? Donny Chamberland recently retired from the military, and his wife, Victoria, recently did the same from a civilian position. They decided to leave Madison, Wisconsin and retire to San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. Each year throngs of people come to relax at the many resorts the Dominican Republic has to offer. But what is it like to reside there full-time? Find out on Episode 64 of Retire There with Gil & Gene.

The Chamberlands discuss living in the Dominican Republic on their YouTube channel, called Victoria + Donny, which is in both English and Spanish.

Jake Kheel joins me to discuss his recent book “Waking The Sleeping Giant, Unlocking The Hidden Power of Business to Save The Planet”. For fifteen years Jake Kheel www.jakekheel.com has confronted social and environmental challenges in the Dominican Republic as Vice President of the Grupo Puntacana Foundation and Vice President of Sustainability for Grupo Puntacana. Under his leadership, the company’s sustainability programs have been recognized with numerous prominent international awards. Jake was instrumental in pioneering one of the Caribbean’s largest coral reef restoration projects, implementing the Dominican Republic’s largest integrated solid waste program known as the Zero Waste initiative and directs the Center for Sustainability, a think tank that works with some of the world’s most notable universities to conduct research and devise experiments related to sustainable development. The Punta Cana development has become a global example of how the private sector can implement sustainability programs and simultaneously turn them into profitable enterprises. 

The Office of Communications at Hostos Community College of The City University of New York launches Caiman Radio with a five-part series dedicated to the grand figure of the College's namesake, Eugenio María de Hostos. 
 
Hostos Emeritus Professor Orlando J. Hernández joins us to discuss the life and times of the great 19th Century humanist, educator, journalist, abolitionist, and thinker whose work has influenced the Caribbean and Latin American region to this day, but whose contributions have been mostly forgotten.
 
Professor Hernández is one of the world's only scholars to take on the task of translating the work of Don Eugenio into the English language.
 
Joe Caravalho, original score
José García, original art
Tanisha Love Ramírez, episode writer and host
Soldanela Rivera, episode writer and host
Alex Rodríguez, sound engineer and editor
Rafael Torres, Caiman Radio voiceover 
Caiman Radio is produced by the Office of Communications in collaboration with the Digital Music Program at Hostos Community College.

The Office of Communications at Hostos Community College of The City University of New York launches Caiman Radio with a five-part series dedicated to the grand figure of the College's namesake, Eugenio María de Hostos. 
 
Hostos Emeritus Professor Orlando J. Hernández joins us to discuss the life and times of the great 19th Century humanist, educator, journalist, abolitionist, and thinker whose work has influenced the Caribbean and Latin American region to this day, but whose contributions have been mostly forgotten.
 
Professor Hernández is one of the world's only scholars to take on the task of translating the work of Don Eugenio into the English language.
 
Joe Caravalho, original score
José García, original art
Tanisha Love Ramírez, episode writer and host
Soldanela Rivera, episode writer and host
Alex Rodríguez, sound engineer and editor
Rafael Torres, Caiman Radio voiceover 
Caiman Radio is produced by the Office of Communications in collaboration with the Digital Music Program at Hostos Community College.

The Office of Communications at Hostos Community College of The City University of New York launches Caiman Radio with a five-part series dedicated to the grand figure of the College's namesake, Eugenio María de Hostos. 
 
Hostos Emeritus Professor Orlando J. Hernández joins us to discuss the life and times of the great 19th Century humanist, educator, journalist, abolitionist, and thinker whose work has influenced the Caribbean and Latin American region to this day, but whose contributions have been mostly forgotten.
 
Professor Hernández is one of the world's only scholars to take on the task of translating the work of Don Eugenio into the English language.
 
Joe Caravalho, original score
José García, original art
Tanisha Love Ramírez, episode writer and host
Soldanela Rivera, episode writer and host
Alex Rodríguez, sound engineer and editor
Rafael Torres, Caiman Radio voiceover 
Caiman Radio is produced by the Office of Communications in collaboration with the Digital Music Program at Hostos Community College.

The Office of Communications at Hostos Community College of The City University of New York launches Caiman Radio with a five-part series dedicated to the grand figure of the College's namesake, Eugenio María de Hostos. 
 
Hostos Emeritus Professor Orlando J. Hernández joins us to discuss the life and times of the great 19th Century humanist, educator, journalist, abolitionist, and thinker whose work has influenced the Caribbean and Latin American region to this day, but whose contributions have been mostly forgotten.
 
Professor Hernández is one of the world's only scholars to take on the task of translating the work of Don Eugenio into the English language.

Joe Caravalho, original score
José García, original art
Tanisha Love Ramírez, episode writer and host
Soldanela Rivera, episode writer and host
Alex Rodríguez, sound engineer and editor
Rafael Torres, Caiman Radio voiceover 
Caiman Radio is produced by the Office of Communications in collaboration with the Digital Music Program at Hostos Community College.

In this week's episode, we discuss straight pride, Kylie Jenner's new skincare line, mysterious deaths at a Dominican Republic hotel along with other creepy hotel stories, and we wrap it up with our recommendations of the week.