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That’s not my name: The reunion that helped a U of M student, her family get their U.S. citizenship (part 2)

11/17/2013

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By Erica Horton

As she sat answering questions for her citizenship test, Scovia Wilson was nervous.

“Lord knows I didn’t know anything,” she said. “He only asked me like, 10 questions. My whole interview was more so just talking to him. What does this mean to you? Why do you want to be a citizen?”

She told him how passionate she was about seeing her parents in Belgium.

“I’ve always wanted to spend Christmas with my mom and dad,” she said. “Now, I get to do that.”

Scovia experienced receiving her Green Card, getting her citizenship, and is currently waiting for her citizenship ceremony and on Nov. 13, she received her passport.

Now she, her grandparents and her brother are all U.S. citizens.
Lucia Bakeba Wilson, Scovia’s grandmother, said she and her family lived in refugee camps in Sudan  from 1993 to 1999 and that her son, Livingston Wilson, was the first of her family to come to the U.S.

Lucia thought her son was dead after a bombing in Sudan.  However, Livingston left the camps in 1995 and was helped by missionaries to get his citizenship.

He started the citizenship process for his parents to come to the U. S.

Lucia said receiving her citizenship in November 2010 was one of the happiest moments in her life.

“It meant the world for her to get her citizenship,” Scovia said. “She failed the first time, but I encouraged her to do it again.”

The American passport is the key to more family reunions for Scovia.

After exams at the University of Memphis end in December, Scovia will go to see her mother and then her father for a month.

Then, she will turn 20 in Paris with her brother, another dream coming to reality.

“When I was seven years old, I was in Uganda and Kampala and I saw a picture of the Eiffel Tower,” she said. “I didn’t know what it was, but after researching it I said, ‘I want to turn 20 next to that thing.’”

Later travel plans for Scovia include going to Uganda to see her uncles and India for spring break.

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