San Jose principal becomes a U.S. citizen in front of her students

By Khalida Sarwari

Gloria Marchant has walked through the double doors of San Jose High School countless times in her four years as principal, but Tuesday was different.

The 44-year-old educator walked in as an immigrant and strolled out a newly minted American citizen after a ceremony before dozens of her students, many of them undocumented immigrants treading their own laborious paths to legalization.

It was those “Dreamers” — who were brought here illegally as children — that broke into thunderous applause in the school auditorium when Marchant accepted her certificate.

Afterward, Marchant said she felt a mixture of “excitement, nervousness and hopefulness” — for herself and for her students.

“We have a lot of immigrant students,” she said. “The neighborhood is mostly immigrants and after the election so many kids felt they were going to be impacted somehow, so with all the negative news I think my hope was to give them hope and inspire them and bring them a little bit of calmness to the fear they live in. There’s been so much fear.”

In her keynote address, Marchant spoke directly to the students — all of whom were there voluntarily — emphasizing the values of hard work, seizing opportunities, persevering through difficulties, setting goals and investing in education.

“Keep dreaming, keep working hard,” she said, her eyes scanning the bleachers packed with students, teachers and parents. “Stay true to yourself and what you want in life and remember that education is a path to a better future and a path to making a real difference to our society.”

A native of Valparaíso, Chile, Marchant and her family moved to Toronto, Canada when she was 13. She later became a citizen of Canada and attended the University of Toronto, graduating with a double major in biology and Spanish. She found an opportunity to put that degree to use not long after when she visited San Francisco and saw a commercial on TV for a bilingual science teacher position at Hoover Middle School. She applied and got the job — her first out of college — and the rest, as they say, is history. Marchant has remained with the San Jose Unified School District since. It was the district that sponsored her visa, paving the way for her citizenship.

“They’ve been good to me and I’ve been loyal to them,” she said.

And she wasted no time in taking advantage of an important American privilege newly bestowed upon her, grabbing a voter registration form and filling it out in between thanking well-wishers soon after the hour-long ceremony ended.

“I’ve never voted in any election so I think that’s the part that’s really exciting for me,” she said.

San Jose High students Robert Gamble, 17, Catherine Martinez and Nathan Luong, both 16, helped to set up and lead the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance.

“I know that a lot of the opportunities I have today I would not have had had she not told me about them,” said Robert.

Catherine, who is involved in public speaking at her school, said Marchant approached her about leading the pledge.

“She gives us opportunity to voice our opinions and give speeches to people,” she said. “She’s more like, ‘Hey I see something in you and you should show it to the world.”

Marchant’s was not the only inspirational story to come out of the naturalization ceremony at San Jose High. Abel Lopez, a San Jose resident from Mexico, also became an American citizen at the age of 90.

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San Jose principal becomes a U.S. citizen in front of her students