Path to Citizenship

There wasn’t a dry eye on the afternoon of August 30, 2007 when Yeny Jeffers and 10 other immigrants took the oath of citizenship at Littleton’s Bemis Public Library.

For Yeny, it was a very special moment. She had taken English language classes for six months. Then she, like the others in the ceremony, had studied intensively with a volunteer mentor from the Littleton Immigrant Integration Initiative (LI3)—part of The Colorado Trust’s Immigrant Integration program—in preparation for her citizenship exam and interview with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Yeny immigrated to the United States after she married her American-born husband, Sean, in her home country of El Salvador where he was working as a Peace Corps volunteer. They chose to settle and raise a family in America because, she says, “El Salvador is not safe.” But everything about the transition to Colorado was hard: food, language, clothing, transportation, lack of friends and living far from her family.

Some people were unkind, seeing her dark hair and stereotypically labeling her as “Mexican and illegal.” And some falsely assumed she married her husband “just to get immigration papers” instead of for the love they share.

Additionally, Yeny had worked as a marketing coordinator for an economic and social development program in El Salvador. With her degree in business administration, she expected to find a “really good, professional job” in Colorado. But language barriers proved to be more difficult than expected.

Fortunately, her husband’s family warmly welcomed her to America. The day Yeny became a citizen, the family gathered for dinner. Nephews led her in a procession around the house and posed questions from the immigration exam she had passed. Family members, she says, exclaimed, “I didn’t know that,” and “I can’t answer that question!”

L13 made a difference, too. Yeny discovered the initiative’s Immigrant Information Office when she took her son to story-time at Bemis Library. There, LI3 coordinator Alejandra Harguth connected her with a volunteer, Rhonda Bolich-Lampo, who would become her citizenship mentor and friend. Rhonda and Yeny studied citizenship questions together weekly for five months. “I only asked once if we could take three weeks off—when I had the baby,” she says with a laugh.

Rhonda said she tried to make learning fun, sometimes playing a version of Jeopardy where she’d give Yeny the answers and Yeny would have to provide the questions. But it wasn’t all work—the two enjoyed getting to know each other, taking time at some study sessions to chat about how they grew up and learn about each others’ cultures.

Today, Yeny and Rhonda remain friends, keeping in touch regularly. “There is a lot of personal satisfaction in mentoring,” Rhonda says. “I developed a vested interest in having Yeny pass her exam, and then felt so much joy at her naturalization ceremony.” That satisfaction is continuing for Rhonda, who has volunteered to mentor another newcomer this fall.

Yeny, 36, looks forward to voting for the first time in November. And she is delighted with her home in Centennial. When she was young, Yeny says, she always dreamed of living in a neighborhood of small houses and warm neighbors. “I drew pictures of that neighborhood in all my school notebooks,” she says. Now, to her joy, she lives in a neighborhood “just like my drawings.”

Yeny hopes to work in finance when her children are older. Daughter Allison is a good-natured five-month-old. Three-and-a-half-year-old Diego, fluent in both Spanish and English, loves his preschool and playing with friends. Like his sister, he holds citizenship in both the United States and El Salvador.

“Diego believes he can be president of either El Salvador or America,” Yeny laughs.

Diego’s favorite T-shirt, the one that he wore to his mother’s naturalization ceremony, proudly proclaims “Future President.” That’s one of the wonderful things about America—that prediction could come true someday.”