Museum prepares immigrants for U.S. citizenship exam

A group got a special history lesson at the New-York Historical Society—a lesson they'll need in order to pass a very important exam.

The society and CUNY Citizenship Now! partnered in summer 2017 to launch the Citizenship Project—an initiative helping the more than 1 million legal immigrants in New York become American citizens through civics and American history classes.

Samantha Rijkers, the manager of the Citizenship Project, said the classes don't just use textbooks; they use artifacts and documents from American history to prepare the students, who spend half of the class in a classroom and the other half at the museum going from gallery to gallery.

Armando Chavez came from Mexico 19 years ago. he said that when he found out about the citizenship project he didn't hesitate to sign up.

Many green card holders may opt to study on their own and memorize the 100 questions and answers, but for Armando and the rest of his classmates becoming an American citizen is more than just memorizing answers—it is putting American history in perspective.

the goal of the program is not only for these folks to pass their naturalization exam, but to help them understand American history and government in hopes of making them more engaged citizens.

These classes are free all you need to have is your green card. The program offers classes in the mornings, evenings, and weekends.

Citizenship Project