Yousif Kori, citizenship student at Skyline Literacy

Yousif Kori moved with his family to Harrisonburg from Sudan in 2016 and works at Smithland School as the head custodian. He began taking English classes at Massanutten Technical Center before coming to Skyline Literacy to take a citizenship preparation course. Yousif heard about Skyline from a relative who has lived in the area for a while, and he decided to obtain his U.S. citizenship so that he could travel back to Sudan and make other life processes easier in the U.S.

Yousif appreciated the citizenship preparation class because the teachers would explain a lot of the concepts and words that he could not understand on his own or learning from YouTube. With the help of volunteer instructors, he was able to understand the national government as well as the specifics of the Virginian government and officials. “The material provided by Skyline gave me a good understanding of how the citizenship test would be”, he says. Yousif also appreciated the kindness and explanations that the volunteer instructors provided. He is now encouraging his wife to take the citizenship preparation with Skyline.

While Yousif could not always make it to every class because of his work in the evening, he was grateful for the flexibility and online features that Skyline provided. He officially became a U.S. citizen on June 4th after taking the citizenship preparation class at Skyline, passing the citizenship test with USCIS, and taking the oath during the naturalization ceremony. “I believe that it is very important to become a U.S. citizen because I live here now”, he says; “I would just like to thank Skyline Literacy – I know a lot of people who cannot read nor understand the U.S. citizenship process, and Skyline helps you do that.” In the future, Yousif plans to continue taking high-level English classes at Massanutten Technical Center, an educational partner of Skyline Literacy.