{"id":940,"date":"2024-12-19T17:00:57","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/?p=940"},"modified":"2024-12-19T17:00:57","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T17:00:57","slug":"pellissippi-state-professor-holds-naturalization-ceremony-for-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/?p=940","title":{"rendered":"Pellissippi State professor holds naturalization ceremony for student"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Pellissippi State student Maria Ortiz Qui\u00f1ones<\/strong> has been sworn in as an American citizen and celebrated her accomplishment with classmates.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After years of hard work and dedication, Maria Ortiz Qui\u00f1ones<\/strong>, a first-year student majoring in Nursing at Pellissippi State, has been sworn in as an American citizen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeven years ago, I left my country and came to America as a refugee,\u201d shares Maria, who was born in Colombia. \u201cI left everything behind. It was hard to leave my family, my country and my hometown to start a new journey here, but I made it!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically friends and family celebrate with new citizens at a naturalization ceremony, a formal event that includes taking the oath, patriotic music and a call of countries. Due to COVID-19, however, these naturalization ceremonies have been cancelled or significantly shortened.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Pellissippi State Associate Professor Lora Bagwell<\/strong> found out that Maria would not get to experience a naturalization ceremony, she decided to host one for her at the College. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to do something about that,\u2019\u201d recalls Bagwell. \u201cThat\u2019s too big of a deal to not celebrate!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bagwell thought that this milestone deserved acknowledgement, so she planned a small in-class celebration for Maria on Tuesday, Feb. 1. Students in both Bagwell\u2019s College Success and her Academic and Personal Reading classes were invited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maria<\/a>
Associate Professor Lora Bagwell<\/strong> hosted an in-class celebration to recognize Maria’s accomplishment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bagwell talks to her students almost daily about developing grit and a growth mindset, using examples such as Michael Jordan, Inky Johnson and Olympia LePoint. \u201cNow we have our own example,\u201d says Bagwell. \u201cMaria\u2019s process to become a citizen started in 2015, and she\u2019s had to remain gritty and maintain a growth mindset in order to accomplish this.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the in-class ceremony, Maria shared her story about becoming a U.S. citizen. She expressed how thankful she is for the people who helped her learn the things she needed to survive and be successful in America – things like how to get her driver\u2019s license.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough this process, I met a lot of people who helped me be strong and learn a lot of new things,\u201d Maria explains. \u201cI\u2019m so happy for everything I have today and every single person that I met during the process.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please join us in congratulating Maria on this incredible accomplishment! We are proud of her and her dedication. Maria is truly #PellissippiStrong! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years of hard work and dedication, Maria Ortiz Qui\u00f1ones, a first-year student majoring in Nursing at Pellissippi State, has been sworn in as an American citizen.  \u201cSeven years ago, I left my country and came to America as a refugee,\u201d shares Maria, who was born in Colombia. \u201cI left everything behind. It was hard to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":942,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions\/942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/policies.pstcc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}