All across the country, colleges and universities are places for students from all backgrounds and cultures to learn and grow. Given the City of San Diego’s diverse population, the University of San Diego (USD) is a prime example, and the institution makes a special point to acknowledge and provide opportunities to its foreign-born students, faculty, and staff.
Recognizing the ways in which its eligible faculty and staff could benefit both professionally and personally from United States citizenship, USD partnered with New American Workforce in October 2015. Through this partnership, USD has been hosting citizenship workshops to assist its eligible faculty and staff members, like Christopher and Margaret, with the citizenship process.
Originally from Canada, Christopher and Margaret came to the U.S. in 2002 and have been married for over ten years. The couple loves their life in San Diego and have always desired to become citizens, especially since having their children. They also wanted to be able to fully participate in their community, “We didn’t want to sit on the sidelines and just watch. We wanted to be contributing members of society.”
Therefore, when Christopher saw USD was offering citizenship workshops conveniently on campus, they leapt at the opportunity to apply. He found the workshops to be “extremely helpful” and was grateful to always have someone there to answer his questions. Christopher said that the help and support he received from USD was crucial throughout the process, “USD is [an institution] I trust and having them set up the [citizenship] workshops made me feel more confident about the whole process.”
It is exciting that through the USD and New American Workforce partnership, Christopher and Margaret both become citizens in 2016. They look forward to many more years as educators and are thrilled to be able to fully provide security for their children and participate in their local community.