Students at Arches Academy in Orem were immigrants for a day to experience the path to citizenship with the support of local American Legion Post 72 members.
The gymnasium inside Arches Academy in Orem, Utah, was turned into Ellis Island where fifth through eighth grade students became immigrants for a day on a quest to become Americans. The students took a citizenship test, raised their right hand for the Oath of Citizenship and made a commitment to uphold the 10 Milestones of Freedom that teach the principles of what it means to be an American.
Scott Swain founded Milestones of Freedom 15 years ago to educate and remind students of the freedoms they have, the founding principles America was built on, and to instill patriotism and respect for being an American.
“I want them to feel why they should be proud of our country,” said Swain of Orem. “Why they should feel privileged they’re here …what our Constitution means, what our Declaration (of Independence) means. So many times we pay a lip service, but I think we need to take the time to sort of understand why it’s important and foster feeling the gratitude really in our hearts of what we have here as Americans.”
As the 29 students sat in the gymnasium, they were surrounded with patriotism. A banner hung from the wall that welcomed them to Ellis Island, U.S. flags stood next to each of the 10 Milestones of Freedom placards, and the American, POW/MIA and military service branch flags were presented by members of the American Legion Post 72 honor guard, along with the sounding of taps and a 13-fold flag ceremony.
The opening to the program by the local American Legion post was “very impactful. A great way to start out having The American Legion here set a good tone,” Swain said, adding that “the Legionnaires were very emotional about it, and very grateful that they could be a part of (Milestones of Freedom) because they were teaching the kids what they love.”
That love is the Legion’s third pillar, Americanism.
“We are glad to help teach any generation about patriotism, Americanism, keep the American dream,” said Kelly Kirkpatrick, vice commander of Post 72 and an honor guard member for 21 years. “We are glad to be a part of it. These are our future leaders. They are smart. They know what we need to do to keep America free. To keep our freedoms.”
Each student had a personalized passport in hand that featured their photo and an explanation of the 10 Milestones of Freedom. They watched videos of immigrants coming to Ellis Island for a better life, for an opportunity, and even heard from a gentleman who recently immigrated to America from Haiti with his family.
“We have something that many countries don’t have, and we take for granted, and that’s freedom,” said Swain, whose great-great-grandfather immigrated through Ellis Island from Sweden and settled in Utah. “That’s a very important concept for people to understand.”
More than 12 million immigrants came through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. And for many of the students, like 7th grader Kelia Bingham, the Milestones of Freedom event was the first time they had heard of Ellis Island. Bingham’s great-great-grandmother immigrated from Japan to America, and watching the videos of Ellis Island immigrants and taking the citizenship test and oath instilled gratitude and a purpose.
“I feel definitely very grateful, a lot of gratitude, because I didn’t realize how blessed I was living in America until I really learned about what other people have to go through,” she said. “Definitely feels like I have a bit more purpose to like do more things and learn more about immigration.”
Fifth grader Ben Marquez’s father immigrated to the United States from Mexico as a young child, so with the Milestones of Freedom program he was looking forward to learning more about immigration and the process to citizenship. The program helped him “to know that immigrants have a hard time and to not take for granted that we were born here.”
Following the videos, the students formed into groups and visited each Milestones of Freedom station where volunteers of parents and Post 72 members explained the meaning for each, asked the students to make the citizenship commitments of that milestone, then both the student and volunteer initialed the passports for that milestone.
The 10 Milestones of Freedom are:
Milestone 1: Liberty is worth fighting for
Milestone 2: The rights of the people are superior to the powers of government
Milestone 3: Liberty is more important than security
Milestone 4: The foundation for good government
Milestone 5: Support of our military
Milestone 6: Having hope in America even when all looks lost
Milestone 7: Religious freedom in America
Milestone 8: Recognizing the Constitution as the supreme law of our land
Milestone 9: Understanding our natural rights
Milestone 10: Pledging our allegiance
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of covering the principles that make America great and makes you appreciate being an American,” Swain said.
Department of Utah National Executive Committeeman Terry Schow volunteered for Milestone 10 and “made it a point to say to them pledge is a fancy word for care. We want you to care about this country. I told them that they are the hope of America because they are the hope of America,” Schow said. “I certainly commend the school for doing this, and I commend my American Legion for doing this because it’s such a great, great program. Two hundred fifty years ago this great country was formed. It’s nice to help the young folks remember the history of what this is about.”
Arches Academy, a private school, works with community partners to help be a part of solutions to issues that are happening on a local and national level. With immigration currently at the forefront of America today, Arches Academy Head of School David Reese welcomed Milestones of Freedom as an opportunity for his students to “walk away with sort of reverence for the experience that their ancestors, however far back, might have been for them and their family have gone through. The challenges, the hardships, and what it took to build the country we have now, and enjoy the freedoms, liberties, comforts that we enjoy now. Hopefully that reverence will make them responsible, or soon to be responsible, citizens,” he said.
The path to becoming responsible citizens started for the students prior to Wednesday as they had to take a citizenship test before they could participate in Milestones of Freedom. Arches Academy history teacher Stacy Medley worked with Swain to prepare the students with a curriculum that educated the students on the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. flag, immigration and path to American citizenship. The students had to receive at least a 70% on the 10-question citizenship test to pass.
“I wanted to impress upon them how big of a deal it was first of all that this event was wanting to help them understand what it was like to be in the shoes of an immigrant and that somebody immigrating to America does have to take a test like this and pass it,” Medley said, mentioning that the students were nervous and some did have to take the test over. Medley was excited when she heard about the opportunity to bring Milestones of Freedom to Arches Academy to educate students about the legacy of immigration and what it’s meant to America.
“I really hope that they understand what it means to be a citizen and how special that is,” she said. “It’s not something to be taken for granted, which I feel is very easy to do as someone born in America not having to go through this process. That they should really understand how important it is and how lucky they are to have this experience and kind of ask themselves what they can do as a result of what they’ve learned. How they can go forward and do something different.”
The program culminated with the students taking the Oath of Citizenship.
“I hope they will show other people, ‘This is what I did, and I took the oath because most people haven’t taken the oath,’ right. Very few people have,” Swain said. “We want them now to be an example to others. ‘I’m a true American, are you?’”
When someone asks what a true American is, Swain said the students can share that they committed to the 10 Milestones of Freedom, took a citizenship test and had to pass like other immigrants, and took the Oath of Citizenship, which was administered by Congressman Burgess Owens. His granddaughter, London Berrett, was in attendance as a 6th grader at Arches Academy. She found the program important since she didn’t know and understand the immigration process and path to citizenship until now, which has made her “more grateful to be in America.”
The immigration to American citizenship path is familiar to eighth grader Avi Temkin, whose father immigrated to the United States from Israel and thus encouraged him to participate in the Milestones of Freedom program. Temkin studied for the citizenship test, which he found “was more difficult than I expected. But once I did it (and passed), I was very excited to be able to participate in this event,” he said.
Temkin recently visited the Statue of Liberty in New York City, the symbol of hope and opportunity that awaited immigrants as they came to Ellis Island as he heard in the videos played during the program. “It was amazing hearing the stories of people who went through Ellis Island to become American citizens, and it makes me a lot prouder to be an American citizen seeing all of this and the whole process.”
Temkin is thankful to Arches Academy for hosting the Milestones of Freedom program for its students to learn more about immigration, the path to citizenship and what it means to be an American.
“I think every student here who experienced it will value it for the rest of their life, and I think that if this continues on to other schools it will be amazing, and it would definitely help America.”
- Youth