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'Mission: Citizen' now at Roosevelt High School
5/14/2018Could you pass the U.S. citizenship test? Maybe. Maybe not. Some questions may surprise people who were born and raised in this country, and certainly could be a challenge for newcomers. That’s why eight Roosevelt High School students spend their Wednesday evenings teaching the ins and outs of the test to more than 50 immigrants through the Mission: Citizen program.
“My parents had to take it when I was younger, and I couldn’t really help them,” said Angela Gonzales, a Roosevelt junior. “So this is a way that I could not only learn something but I could make a difference in my community and do something that I wish I could have done for my parents.”
Mission: Citizen began nine years ago when a group of Lincoln High School Constitution Team students wanted to find a way to use what they learned to help the community. Those students started teaching citizenship classes in two local libraries in Washington County. Since then the program has expanded to four locations. Roosevelt High School’s is the newest. A fifth will start at Reynolds High School in east Multnomah County this fall.
The Mission: Citizen class is eight weeks long. Immigrants who attend learn the information needed to pass the 100-question citizenship exam. They also run through potential questions they will be asked based on their written answers on the N-400, the naturalization form. Applicants may have all of the knowledge to pass the exam, but may be caught off guard by one-on-one questions.
Eva, a student in her mid-50s, is grateful for the classes and looks forward to becoming a citizen, as her brother and sister did years ago.
“I’m in this class because I’ve been waiting for this opportunity to have the support I need,” she said. “I’m going to do all that I can to succeed in the class and do well on the exam.”
Deanna Delgado, a Language Arts teacher at Roosevelt, helped bring Mission: Citizen to the school. She wanted to give her students a way to have an impact in the face of what she and many of her students see as misinformation about immigrants.
“Instead of sitting in the classroom and learning about what’s going on and being upset about it, let’s make a change so that’s how it got started,” said Delgado.
Delgado reached out to Jason Trombley, a Mission: Citizen advisor. Together, they expanded the program to the North Portland community.
The Roosevelt students teach the class in both English and Spanish. Lincoln students are teaching classes in Mandarin Chinese, Arabic and Spanish, too.
“The students are teaching in English and the native languages, so they’re able to use all of their skill sets to help others,” said Trombley. “It’s exciting to see how it has developed over the years.”
-Pamela Jordan
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