Stockton University helped welcome 19 new citizens Friday.
Natives of Colombia, Ghana, India, Poland and Peru took the Oath of Allegiance at the Campus Center in Galloway Township during the annual naturalization ceremony.
The Stockton Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning sponsors naturalization classes at the Stockton Atlantic City campus from 6 to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays from September through May.
“Offering naturalization classes and hosting the naturalization ceremony speaks to the vision of our center, which is to promote the ideals of public service and social responsibility, and serve the public good,” said Dr. Merydawilda Colón, executive director of the center.
Stockton Provost Leamor Kahanov welcomed the group saying we value the unique perspectives they bring to America.
Keith Dorr, of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, administered the oath.
“You are not just good people, you are extraordinary people,” he told them.
New citizens Ramon Eduardo Croce and Nand Patel are also Stockton students.
Patel, of Galloway, is also a member of the New Jersey Air National Guard 177th Fighter Wing.
He was 14 when he came from India with his family. He graduated Absegami High School in 2017, and then enlisted in the Air Force.
“I liked what I was doing,” he said of his work in supply chain management.
Now a Business Studies major at Stockton, he would like to go to officer’s training school.
Karen Chilito, also of Galloway, remembered coming to America from Colombia as a child.
Her two children attended the ceremony.
"I have been here since 1994, and decided it was time to become a citizen,” Chilito said. “I can’t wait to get an American passport and vote, and have my voice heard.”
All of the new citizens were encouraged to register to vote.
Ya-Mei Chen, director of the USCIS office in Mt. Laurel, recalled her own arrival in America from Taiwan, carrying two suitcases and a rice cooker. She said he had studied English, but using it in regular conversation was challenging at first.
“If your first language is not English, it is such a challenge,” she said. “But we made it work. Continue to do what you are doing.”
She encouraged the new citizens to continue to celebrate their culture and heritage with their children, friends and neighbors.
“Be a bridge between cultures,” she said. “It’s important to fit in, but also to stand out. Be yourself.”
Members of two chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Greenwich Tea Burning Chapter from Cumberland County and the General Lafayette Chapter from Somers Point, presented gift bags to the new citizens.
The new U.S. citizens are: Rossana Margo Munoz Alcedo, Tomasz Rzotkiewicz, Iwona Rzotkiewicz, Tracy Alexcia Schechter, Elisa DeJesus Cabral Suarez, Bernard Essah Bediako, Viridiana Nava Juarez, Maria Del Carmen Bisono Tejada, Maricela Velazquez Pacheco, Monik Cohen, Karen Astrid Chilito, Nand Patel, Nilkanthbhai Ashokbhai Parekh, Monica Rocio Balbuena, Richard Ofori Amoakohene, Eddy Castillo, Kristina Stojanovska, Fatama Begum and Ramon Eduardo Croce.
