By JOHN MARINELLI | jmarinelli@prairiemountainmedia.com |
PUBLISHED: October 8, 2019 at 8:54 p.m. | UPDATED: October 8, 2019 at 8:54 p.m.
Twin Peaks Charter Academy’s annual naturalization ceremony is always a joyous and emotional affair. People who came from around the globe finally put a cap on their long journey to becoming citizens while their family and friends cheer.
But this year’s event was particularly special.
Among the 26 people hailing from 14 countries — two of which live in Longmont — who gained citizenship Tuesday night during a ceremony in the school’s auditorium was a member of Twin Peaks’ staff.
Carla Puky, a Spanish teacher at the school for grades six through 12, is now a dual citizen of Hungary and the United States. And before the ceremony began in earnest, she said that it felt “great” knowing that she would finally become a citizen.
“I feel like I belong,” she said.
Puky, who was born in Venezuela, but had dual citizenship in Hungary because of family ties, also said that — for the first time — she’ll exercise her right to vote in the upcoming November election.
“I believe that voting is a right and it’s also — you have to do it,” she said. “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.”
And though she didn’t discuss the process with her students — mainly because it involves a lot of bureaucratic twists and turns — she said when she told them she would be receiving citizenship Tuesday, “they were very happy for me.”
Chloe Cramer and Hannah Rodriguez, a junior and sophomore who are students of Puky’s, said they are delighted for their teacher and what she accomplished in becoming an American citizen.
“It’s awesome,” Cramer said of her teacher reciting the Oath of Allegiance and taking the final step. “We’re really proud of her, because we know that she worked really hard.”
Joe Mehsling, the director of Twin Peaks, said staff at the school were excited to have Puky at the ninth ceremony the school has hosted.
“If you leave here with a dry eye, you have a pretty cold heart,” Mehsling said. “It’s very uplifting.”
Mehsling said that over the four years he’s been at Twin Peaks, in his estimation he’s seen over 300 people gain U.S. citizenship.
Originally, though, Puky wasn’t supposed to attend Twin Peaks’ naturalization ceremony.
But in the end, she was able to “finagle her way here,” said Alycia Burns, an assistant principal at Twin Peaks.
“(There is) just an air of excitement around her and her accomplishment, but also around the ceremony and that she’s a part of something bigger than that,” Burns said.
And during the ceremony in which Twin Peaks’ choir sing the national anthem and kids from the student council lead the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance, Mehsling shared his own winding journey through life. He told the audience about the tragedies and seismic changes that led him to where he is.
“That doesn’t bother me, and it doesn’t affect me and it doesn’t hurt me, because really when I think about myself and who I am, I think: Well I’m Joe, I’m from Colorado, but more fundamentally I’m an American,” Mehsling said. “And I love being a citizen of this country.
“It’s a special gift, we have a special place in this world, and I love the United States.”