Citizenship Tutoring Program off to a Running Start

Applying for citizenship can be a challenging and daunting task. Luckily, the IRC is there to help immigrants and refugees in their aspirations for becoming American citizens. Every year, the IRC aids approximately 150 clients in applying for citizenship. Taking a few months to complete, this process is no easy task. Citizenship hopefuls have to pass an English test, and a challenging civics test that most natural born Americans would be hard pressed to pass.
 
To help in this process, the IRC has created a citizenship tutoring program that matches tutors with clients with hopes of creating a higher success rate in interviews. While still in its infancy, this program has had great success with all of our tutored clients passing their citizenship test on their first try. We can attribute this success to our amazing volunteers who work with clients on a weekly basis preparing them for their naturalization interview.
 
Nawaf Alfaouri explains that he chose to become a tutor because“I wanted to help make a difference in someone’s life in the long run, and not just a temporary aid.” He went on to say that his favorite part in volunteering is “hearing how much more confident the client is, and better prepared to take on the test. It’s a great thing to know you were a part of the success.” Nawaf is one of our 5 active tutors who have been critical in the program’s success.
 
We hope our citizenship tutoring program continues to produce great results. If you are interested in becoming a citizenship tutor, send us an email at Seattle@Rescue.org.
 
Return to the IRC in Seattle