NY Historical Society Launches Program To Help Immigrants Achieve Citizenship

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The New York Historical Society, located on the Upper West Side, is partnering with The City University of New York to help the nearly one million green card holders in the New York Area become naturalized citizens.

The newly-launched partnership, called The Citizenship Project, will offer free free civics and American history workshops and other educational resources to immigrants on the path to citizenship, according to a historical society press release.

"At New-York Historical, we believe in an inclusive ‘We the People,’ welcoming immigrants as well as those born in the United States to a nation whose motto is, after all, E pluribus unum—out of many, one," Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical Society, said in a statement. "With our vast collections and a talented team of educators already serving more than 200,000 New York City public school children annually, we are uniquely positioned to help immigrants learn and understand the requirements and responsibilities of American citizenship."

The Citizenship Project will launch this summer. Nine free workshops will be held on-site at the historical society, located on Central Park West between West 76th and 77th streets. The workshops will be offered on weekends, weeknights and weekdays, so people can pick the time best suited to their schedules, according to the historical society.

The workshops will help green card holders study for the United States naturalization test, which consists of an interview, civics test and English test. Workshop attendees will learn about pivotal moments in U.S. history and study artifacts from the historical society's collections and exhibits.

Immigrants will also have the opportunity to tour the entire historical society museum during a scavenger hunt curated around objects related to the naturalization exam and attend related events and talks at the museum.

"No less a figure than American founder Alexander Hamilton was pilloried in his day on account of his Caribbean birth," Dr. Mirrer said in a statement. "The question of what it means to be an American, central at our nation’s inception, continues to give rise to discussions and debates about immigration today."

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