10
NEWS
Students study for citizenship
STORY BY KAI TINKER
STAFF WRITER
Clackamas Community College has what may be the
least known about, but for some students, the most
important course they may ever take. This course
is a citizenship workshop, dedicated to helping
students achieve their goal of becoming a United
States citizen.
Well it isn’t a course in the traditional sense,
according to Michelle Culley, the volunteer literacy
coordinator at CCC.
“ We offer a free citizenship workshop taught by
volunteer tutors rather than a class/’ said Culley
over email. “ We never have had enough participants
to offer it as a class. Also, the Students often
have different needs and different proficiencies
of English, so the workshop format allows us to
customize the curriculum term by term .”
“ In general, we assist a student in studying for the
reading, writing, speaking and civics portion of the
citizenship exam. We provide the students with all
the study materials they need and no-cost copies
of the N-400 application. We do not offer any legal
advice or information.”
The aspiring citizen will be asked 10 questions out
of a list of 100. Some of the questions are simple,
such as, “ Name one right or freedom from thie
First Amendment” or “ Who vetoes bills?” Others
however, are complicated questions that even some
citizens could struggle to answer, such as, “ Name a
writer of the Federalist Papers.”
To qualify for citizenship, the following are some
of the requirements according to the USCIS:
Be at least 18 years old at the time you file
Form N-400, Application for Naturalization.
Be a permanent resident for at least 5 years.
Demonstrate continuous residence in the United
States for at least 5 years immediately before the
date you file Form N-400. Show that you have been
physically present in the United States for at least
30 months out of the 5 years immediately before the
date you file Form N-400.
This is a small port ion of the rather significant
requirements.
Eventually, Iwas able to meet up with Culley and
Sandy Svatos, thé tutor of the workshop. Alongside
them were three students, two from Mexico and
one from Jordan, all women who shared one major
similarity. They were all married to a United States
citizen. 7
Svatossaid, “ The course is announced at the
beginning of each term. It’ s really hard to get that
information out; we find it’s good just to go face to
face with students.”
Culley said one of the hardships in applying for
citizenship: “ It’s really expensive. To get your
citizenship, it’ s almost $800 and it’s actually going
up sometime this year. Most likely, by quite a bit. I
think it’ s going to be around $1,100 or $1,200.”
The students explained their motives behind
purusuing citizenship.
“ Because [of] the nice life in America with my
fam ily,” said the student from Jordan. “ I have three
daughters and my husband. I need to citizenship
because they live here.” She wept on to say that
“ [America] is a nice place and has lots of benefits.”
It’ s nice to have a reminder of the hope this
country can inspire, and that’s something worth
celebrating.
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March 11,2020