The Observer Newspapers

Class Welcomes New Citizens at Immigration Ceremony

by Jackie Allder

For Samantha Shortt, a senior at Herndon High School, attending the U.S. naturalization ceremony last week was a preview of what she will see next year when her mom becomes a citizen. Shortt is part of Doug Graney's political science class at Herndon, and she represented her class and her family by giving a welcoming speech to the newest Americans during the ceremony.
Addressing the diverse group of new citizens on Dec. 4, Shortt talked about the opportunities that are available to Americans and how living in the United States allowed her mother and aunt to become successful. "It just meant a lot to me to give that speech and share a little of my mother's experience," Shortt said on Monday afternoon. Shortt's mother and her aunt, both of whom were married to American soldiers, immigrated to the United States from Panama in the 1980s.

Herndon Observer Reporter Jackie Allder Interviews Samantha
Shortt said she thought her mother waited to apply for citizenship because family and work commitments kept her busy. Additionally, she said, she thought her mother might have been intimidated by the process and afraid that she would not be able to answer all of the questions about U.S. history.
But as Shortt and her brother grew up and started studying history and civics, their interest in the subjects seemed to have an impact on their mother, Shortt said. "I think that's what inspired her to do it," she said.
While Shortt said she was nervous about the speech, she prepared by working with Graney, as well as her aunt and mother. Her aunt, who became a naturalized citizen last year, gave her an overview of the ceremony and said she would have loved to have had students attend the ceremony, Shortt said. "It shows that there's other people who care that you're becoming a citizen," Shortt said.
In her speech, Shortt talked about the Statue of Liberty and how it welcomes immigrants to the nation and she quoted Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that "all men are created equal." "So even though we come from different places, look different and have different faiths, we are now all Americans and America's first motto was 'E Pluribus Unum,' Out of Many, One," Shortt said in her speech.
She said she enjoyed watching the reactions on the new citizens' faces after different lines and she thought the ceremony changed the views of some of her classmates. "I think it really did give us a good appreciation of what it means to be an American," she said.