Salima Shairzadeh (center, floral shirt) surrounded by CIANA clients, staff, and volunteers. Photo: Lena Gran.
On November 11, CIANA celebrated Salima Shairzadeh, one of our Civics students and a legal and case management client, passing her citizenship exam. A client of CIANA since 2018, Salima is very excited to complete her journey towards citizenship.
Salima recalls that it was very stressful as she initially did pass her naturalization interview on her first attempts. Yet, she never gave up, and after a lot of hard work, encouragement from CIANA staff, and coaching by our volunteer citizenship tutor, John, she called excitedly from the interview to tell us the good news that she had finally passed!
She will be sworn in as a U.S. Citizen on November 26, just two days before Thanksgiving.
Salima is just one of four clients who have passed the naturalization interview within a span of three weeks; legal clients Marvin Alonzo and Joyce Bonsu passed on October 21, and Civics student Dora Vega passed on November 13. CIANA is indebted to our volunteer tutor, John Kaloumenos, who worked one on one with Marvin, Salima, and Dora to ensure that they were fully prepared for the citizenship exam. Congratulations to all of our clients who are on their way to becoming official Americans!