3/15/2019Press Releases

Naturalization Ceremony

Hon. Carlota Bohm with Ember Holmes and Kathy Andreycheck

Meet the newest United States citizens.

The Honorable Carlota Bohm, Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge, administered the oath to 49 people during a Citizen Recognition Ceremony on Friday, March 15, at the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The new citizens were welcomed by Ember K. Holmes, an attorney for Dickie McCamey & Chilcote, a Pittsburgh-based law firm that sponsored the naturalization ceremony.

“You started your lives in a different part of the world, but this in now your home,” Ms. Holmes said to the new citizens that represent 24 different nationalities.

“The community here and the culture here just creates a sense of belonging. I hope that not one of you ever feels like you don’t belong, because you absolutely do,” Holmes said in her address in a courtroom of the Joseph F. Weis, Jr. U.S. Federal Courthouse.

The new citizens were presented certificates, Presidential letters and flags by Judge Bohm, Ms. Holmes and Kathy Andreychek of Dickie McCamey. David Maxwell, the chairman of the Rotary Club’s Naturalization Committee noted that this was the 34th year that Mrs. Andreychek participated in the ceremony.

Other ceremony speakers included: Haley Walden-Rodgers, Assistant United States Attorney; Jane Butler, League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh; Jacquelyn M. Wise, Jewish Family and Community Service; and Makhmud Atayey, a native of Turkmenistan.

Paulina Bradley of North Allegheny 8th grade IMS Voices sang the National Anthem and “God Bless America.” Eric Sciulli, an Operations Analyst for U.S. Bankruptcy Court sang “America the Beautiful.”

Citizens Recognition Ceremony from Dickie McCamey on Vimeo