For Kathy Hla, the path to the present has been a quite a journey, both geographically from her native country of Myanmar (formerly Burma), and educationally.  Acquiring and improving her English language skills is still a work in progress.  Yet she has taken a quantum leap in completing her studies in both day and evening EL Civics/Citizenship courses she has been enrolled in, possessing enough confidence to pursue her naturalization interview on that very same day. 

She came in definitely well-prepared, having passed a 100-question end-of-course exam earlier in the day.  With the material fresh in her mind, she successfully answered all six questions posed by the examiner, ranging in topics from United States history, government geography and the Constitution.  "Excited" and "proud" describe Kathy's attitude as she looks forward to being among the thousands of newly-minted citizens at the upcoming naturalization ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
 
Kathy praises her Citizenship instructors Kari Lynch and Lauryl Buckel.  "This program is very good, and I really liked it.  My teachers prepared me well for the test and interview."  When she is finished with the ESL program and has taken some computer classes, she would like to fulfill her goal of working in some type of office job capacity where she can utilize her skills. 
 
In Kathy's leisure time, she enjoys cooking for her family, gardening, writing and reading English books of all types. Kathy's husband Tin Ko is a CAD engineer at Skyworks in Newbury Park.  They have two daughters, the older one a USC alumnus with a degree in architectural engineering, the field in which she is currently working.  The other is a student at Moorpark College's architectural engineering program, from where she plans to transfer to a 4-year college. 

The route of becoming a U.S. citizen, even in advance of acquiring complete language proficiency is quite an admirable accomplishment and is a testament to Kathy's love of her long-time adopted country and the motivation to achieve her future goals.