Humans of St. Norbert:

“I initially didn’t ever want to be a [U.S.] citizen. It wasn’t one of those things where I didn’t want to be a citizen because I was fundamentally against it or something. I was so adamant that I had to want to do it ... because becoming a citizen of a country is a huge thing, in my opinion. Like if someone was becoming an Irish citizen, I would want them to take it very seriously, because you become an ambassador for that country. I was here six years before I decided it was time to do it. I became a citizen in 2018, and having seen everything going on politically in this country, I felt I couldn’t really throw stones and sit on the sideline. So part of it was that I wanted to be more involved in my civic duties, and voting especially. The second thing was that [the U.S.] felt more like home. It’s not a bad thing to say that you have two places you can call home. That for me was a key component.

“Most naturally born Americans don’t understand how awesome – and I don’t use that word lightly – [the citizenship] ceremony is. It was down in Milwaukee in the federal courthouse. My mom actually happened to be visiting at the time. ... [My wife] was with me, the kids were with us, my mom came and one of my really good friends from our geology department, Becky McKean, came along as well. People cared about it! It is a big life event! I didn’t get that at the time.

“The federal judge was a daughter of immigrants herself and she talked about them coming here and how important the whole thing was. That was emotional. There were 68 people in the room, 66 of whom were from 66 individual countries. … You could tell everyone in that room took it so seriously. ... So to be there and have that going on, all these people and the support behind me, it was a very emotional day even thinking about it now. And really nothing changed except that I could vote and perform civic duties. Everything else remained the same.

“My sister came to visit shortly after that and we went to a Packers game. I had never sung the American national anthem because I never felt I could. Every national anthem, I think, is very important to the people from that place. I wasn’t a citizen, so in my mind, it was disrespectful if a non-citizen would sing the national anthem. [At the game,] I found myself singing it and it was a big moment. That was the moment that I felt I had become a citizen.” – Jamie O’Brien, associate dean for Schneider School of Business & Economics and associate professor of business administration