*By Anyary Ventura
SANTO DOMINGO.-The rector of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), Emma Polancoreceived several awards this Thursday from the UASD-Mao Center, the Valverde province mayor’s office and the Mao History Committee.
During the activity, teacher Elina Estrella said that Polanco was recognized not only for being the first woman to occupy the rectory of the university in its almost five hundred years of foundation, but also for the support she has given both to the UASD-Mao center and to the Santiago Rodríguez subcenter and his efforts to create the Dajabón subcenter.
“Polanco has had among its priority tasks, the consolidation of institutional strengthening, as well as concern for the quality of life of teachers and administrative servants, as well as the education received by the more than two hundred thousand students of the UASD,” said Estrella. .
The mayor of Mao, Odalis Rodríguez, together with a commission of aldermen and council officials, presented Polanco with a parchment of recognition on behalf of the City Council, declaring Dr. Polanco “Honorary Visitor of the Municipality of Mao.”
Meanwhile, the Mao History Committee handed over the parchment to its president, Víctor Almonte, who said that the members of that entity recognized Emma Polanco for “being a woman who dignifies Dominican society by virtue of her trajectory of educator and for making history by being the first woman to occupy the highest position of our Alma Mater”.
Polanco dedicated the awards to the women of the province of Mao, Valverde, at the time of thanking the gesture by the leading institutions of the awards.
“The UASD does not put limits on anyone, since I am an example of this coming from a humble stratum, I was able to achieve the dreams that I set out to enter as a student of the Accounting Career”, emphasized the rector.
Emma Polanco explained the conditions in which she found the university and how she had to deal with the obstacles that arose with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the enormous efforts made to prevent the collapse of the university, hope of the poor from the country.
She said she was proud of how she will leave the UASD, emphasizing that she bravely faced and got out of there, those who advocated disorder and chaos to the detriment of those who really needed that space to forge a better future.
At the end of the act, the teacher Estrella accompanied by the members of the Mao Center Council and the artist Mariela Rodríguez presented Polanco with a painting with his face, made with organic banana peel, a technique sponsored by Banarte, belonging to the Association of Manufacturers of Crafts of Valverde.
Also present at the main table was Father Ángel Francisco Marcano, who was in charge of blessing the activity.
The activity, part of the acts of celebration of the 43rd anniversary of the creation of the UASD-Mao Center, was held in the auditorium of that academic unit.
