Gretcher Hernandez
Hostos Student Ambassador
ASAP Student
Gretcher was born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 1993. She was raised by her mother and grandmother and attended private school for most of her young academic career prior to coming to the United States of America in 2009 after she graduated from high school. The decision to come to the United States at the age of fifteen for Gretcher was a difficult one to make, because she did not want to leave her father and her extended family, but she also believed that she could only find the opportunities that she desired for herself in the United States. She also wanted to continue to be close with her mother and her sister, who both were travelling back and forth between the Dominican Republic and the United States throughout Gretcher’s high school years. She says that they all needed some stability in their lives.
Gretcher had some challenges with the English language when she first arrived in New York and applied to Monroe College, but found their process very difficult, so she decided that it was not for her. After a visit to Hostos Community College in October of 2009, and by talking to some of her family members and friends at a local beauty salon, Gretcher heard that at Hostos she would get assistance with her English that she needed and she could study Business Management. Gretcher began her Hostos experience in January of 2010. She was very scared when she first arrived, but she met the challenge with a positive attitude and had a desire to enjoy all of the activities that the college offered to her.
Gretcher was recruited to be a part of the ASAP (Accelerated Studies in Associate Programs) in fall 2010 and also interviewed to be a part of the Hostos Student Leadership Academy in September of that year. As a participant in the ASAP Leadership Team, she was a part of a trio that created a mural project about the life of a Hostos Student. She is the winner of the 2011 Pillar of Strength Award in ASAP.
As a member of the Hostos Leadership Academy’s Student Ambassador Program, Gretcher has committed to doing 40 hours of community service every semester and has exceeded those numbers in each of her first two semesters in the program. She has been a part of many of the volunteer activities that the Academy has participated in, including; Speaking and Caring for the elderly at Isabella Geriatric Facility in Washington Heights, educating children in Harlem at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service, painting a mural in Sunset Park, Brooklyn as part of the Groundswell Project, feeding the hungry at POTS (Part of the Solution) Soup Kitchen in the North-Bronx, planting trees at Fran Siegel Park, cleaning up the East River Park in Manhattan as part of the 9-11 National Day of Service, just this month and also helping out on the campus of Hostos Community College at registration, giving campus tours and participating in orientation sessions. Gretcher has also walked in AIDS Walk New York and was a part of a team that helped out at Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.
Gretcher has attended several conferences, including; The CUNY Women’s Leadership Conference in October of 2010, The City University of New York Emerging Leaders Conference in February of 2011, The Black, Puerto Rican and Asian Caucus Conference in Albany, The Leadership Conference at the College of Staten Island, The LaGuardia Community College Money Summit, The Millennium Campus Conference at Harvard University and she was a part of a 16 member team that represented Burkina Faso at the 2011 National Model United Nations Conference in New York. At that event, she sat on the World Intellectual Property Organization Committee.
Gretcher was also one of the students from the Hostos Student Leadership Academy to be part of the initiative to create the Hostos Athletic Leaders Organization and as such, she was a participant at the first ever HALO Retreat in New Jersey, where she and 40 other leaders, athletes and leader athletes, challenged themselves on a high ropes courses, a low ropes courses and on a climbing wall.
Gretcher is the winner of the Bronx Dominican Day Parade Scholarship and appeared at home plate at Yankee Stadium to present a special recognition to Robinson Cano, this summer. Gretcher is also the winner of the 2010-2011 Leadership and Service Award from the Hostos Student Leadership Academy.
Gretcher is one of two students from Hostos who will serve as Student Investment Advocates at CUNY Central, as part of the Ernest Malave Leadership Academy Program. Gretcher will advocate on behalf of CUNY students city-wide and will represent all of the colleges of CUNY at City Hall, in Albany and in Washington, D.C.
Gretcher also works in the Office of Career Services. She plans to continue her education at Harvard University, studying to get a degree in Business and Finance. If her hopes for a Harvard education fall through, she will continue to look for the best possible college to get her Bachelor’s Degree from. She also has an interest in studying International Relations and Politics for her Master’s Degree.
Gretcher is currently taking six classes in this her final semester at Hostos Community College, which she says is sad, because she will miss all of the people she has come to call her family.
Gretcher has a grade point average of 3.887 and her GPA has improved over the last three semesters.
Gretcher has graduated from Hostos and will be attending Baruch College in the spring of 2012.
Hoy: Estudiante dominicana es distinguida en Nueva York (9/26/2011)
El Caribe: Una joven dominicana es meritoria en los EEUU (9/26/2011)
El Nacional: Joven RD obtiene honores (09/24/2011)
ThonyGenao.com: Una joven dominicana es meritoria en los EEUU (9/26/2011)
El Nuevo Diario: Estudiante dominicana distinguida en NY visita El Nuevo Diario (12/28/2011)