The Office of the President's Division of Equity, Inclusion, and Compliance partnered with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to bring the first Naturalization Ceremony to CSUB in honor of Memorial Day. On Tuesday, November 12, 2019, the university had the honor of hosting a naturalization ceremony that conferred U.S. citizenship on 100 of our fellow Valley residents, who entered the Dore' Theatre as nationals of countries around the world but left together as American citizens. Naturalization is the process by which a person not born in the United States voluntarily becomes a U.S. citizen.
The special naturalization ceremony also featured two members of our faculty. Dr. Aaron Hegde (Economics) and Dr. Alem Kebede (Sociology) both became new naturalized citizens on this day.
The public was invited to the ceremony, which consisted of a welcome by President Zelezny, the Pledge of Allegiance, the National Anthem, a keynote address by Norma Gaspar Ontiveros, executive producer and anchor of Telemundo Valle Central, and the awarding of certificates by Dr. Zelezny, Marshall Lancaster (USCIS), and Norma Gaspar Ontiveros. Norma Gaspar Ontiveros is a naturalized citizen herself and is also part of the President's Latina/o Advisory Council.
CSUB hopes to hold its second Naturalization Ceremony in Fall 2020.
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