Rojas is the first athlete in the program history to be selected for the 2020 NCAA Division III Student Immersion. Photo Courtesy: Harris Rappel
By Dwayne McBean
York senior Dorianny Rojas, a Community Health Education major, is scoring points for her successful future one game at a time.
Rojas is a 2018-19 CUNYAC Indoor Track & Field Sportsmanship Award honoree and three-time CUNYAC Sportsmanship Team. She has currently been named one of 40 ethnic-minority athletes chosen to participate in the 2020 NCAA Division III Student Immersion Program. She is the first student-athlete in program history to be selected for the program.
For this program, she and 39 other student-athletes of color will travel to Anaheim, California for the NCAA Convention from Jan. 22 to Jan. 25.
Rojas will attend scheduled Division III programming that will comprise of mentor, educational and business sessions, forums, athlete workshops, special Olympics unified sport activities, and additional opportunities for the athletes to connect, network and celebrate during the program.
Born in Moca, Dominican Republic, Rojas moved to the United States when she was nine years old. She recalls her struggle with assimilation at such a young age.
Dorianny Rojas was born in the Dominican Republic where she lived until she was 9-years-old.
“My dad’s family is over there, and most of my mom’s family was over here already so it wasn’t that bad, I was okay eventually because my family was here,” Rojas said.
Rojas has two younger sisters, one of whom also goes to York.
When she was five years old, Rojas was on the soccer team in the DR but she had to take a break when she moved to the U.S.
™I’ve been interested in sports for as long as I can remember,∫ she said. ™When I moved to the United States, I kinda like stopped for a little bit, because you know the transition, I had to do good in school.∫
While in middle school, she did however play softball during the summer, but reserved her energy for her academics when school was in session. It was not until high school before she started taking sports more seriously and as more than an extracurricular activity.
With softball, she also took up volleyball for the first time. She was not good at it at first, but she has gotten better over time.
When she came to York she said she was not thinking about playing volleyball because she had already played volleyball at her previous college, the Borough of Manhattan Community College and she felt more akin to softball.
Rojas is currently a member of the women’s cross country, softball, swimming, indoor/outdoor track & field, and volleyball programs at York.
Rojas plans to get her Masters in Sports Management Administration to land her dream job of becoming an Athletic Director.
