North Dakota’s first lady shares citizenship story with students
Kjersti Armstrong talks with student organizers of the UND CONNECT New Americans project
The UND Communication Department’s New Americans initiative got a visit from a high-profile guest on Wednesday: North Dakota First Lady Kjersti Armstrong.
Originally from Oslo, Norway, Armstrong stopped by O’Kelly Hall with her husband, Gov. Kelly Armstrong, to record a video for the New Americans project. The project is a UND CONNECT initiative which documents the stories of recently naturalized citizens in North Dakota.
Armstrong’s participation is a feather in the cap for Joonghwa Lee, associate professor of communication and lead on the New Americans UND CONNECT project.
“I tried to reach out to a lot of people for this project, and at first, a lot of them were saying ‘No.’ And then I got information that the First Lady of the state was also a new American. She immediately responded and said that she was willing to participate.”
Lee, who is a new American himself, said that he hoped the interviews for this project reflect the diversity of newly naturalized citizens. Armstrong’s participation not only added prestige to the project’s growing roster of participants but also reinforced one of its key concepts:
“A big takeaway from this project for our students and anyone who will watch the interviews is that new Americans play an important role in our community,” Lee said.
Armstrong talks journey to naturalization, emotional impact
Kjersti Armstrong, who serves as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Bluestem Brands in addition to serving on the boards of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, Bully Pulpit, Inc., the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, the Prairie Public Broadcasting network and the Innovation Technology Loan Fund, is a prime example of how new Americans contribute to the state.
During her interview for the New Americans project, Armstrong shared her journey to naturalization and the impact it had on her.
Armstrong was naturalized in 2020 after a long journey that began in 2002 at UND, when an exchange program for her law degree in Norway led her to meet her future husband and now-Governor of North Dakota, Kelly Armstrong.
“I had promised my mom not to meet an American, because she didn’t want me to move. So, I didn’t tell her right away because I didn’t want her to worry,” Armstrong said during her interview. “When I called to tell her, before I said anything she said, ‘So, you’re calling to tell me about the boy.’”
After several years of long-distance dating, the couple married in Norway and settled in North Dakota. She later enrolled at UND School of Law to become licensed to practice in the state. Despite being a permanent resident for nearly two decades, she delayed applying for U.S. citizenship until a change in Norwegian law in 2020 allowed for dual citizenship.
“Both countries are home for me,” she said. “It was really about finally being able to put that on paper — that this is where I belong.”
Armstrong described the citizenship application process as lengthy and somewhat complicated, even for someone with her legal background. She said that the culmination of the process, a naturalization ceremony in Fargo, was a profound experience.
“I wasn’t prepared for how emotional it would be,” Armstrong said, recounting her feelings during the naturalization ceremony she attended in Fargo. “Just being in the room with other new Americans taking the oath — that was really powerful.”
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New Americans project offers education, inspiration
“I was nervous,” said Lauren Huso, a senior communication student and associate director and photographer for this project, on meeting the First Lady of North Dakota. “But she made us feel at ease the moment she walked in. She was cracking jokes and just being so kind. It ended up being one of the best shoots we’ve done.”
Huso, who will be graduating in May and hopes to pursue similar work as she enters the workforce, said that working with Lee on this project has not only been educational but also inspirational.
“Hearing Kjersti and everybody else’s stories has been really inspirational,” she added. “It’s really opened my horizons, and I don’t know if I could have gotten this experience anywhere else.”
Similarly, Kiera Musil, a sophomore and the project’s digital storytelling coordinator, said that in addition to developing her skills as an on-camera interviewer, her involvement with the New Americans project has taught her meaningful lessons about what it means to be an American herself.
“It’s changed my perspective,” said Musil. “I think we all take a lot for granted, and hearing these stories — including the First Lady’s today — reminds me of how lucky we are to call this place home.”
New Americans: A part of North Dakota
Lee says that they plan to continue the project annually, expanding the scope to include interviews with New Americans at naturalization ceremonies in North Dakota, specifically in Fargo and at the University’s Constitution Day ceremony in the Memorial Union.
Before each ceremony, they hope to screen completed versions of the New Americans project videos they’ve recorded over the academic year. Now, with the involvement of high-profile figures such as Kjersti Armstrong, Lee hopes that newly naturalized Americans will be eager to contribute to the project.
“We want this project to serve as a bridge between current residents and New Americans. Some new Americans are hesitant, which I totally understand, but I hope that they feel more confident that they’re not strangers — they’re also a part of North Dakota,” Lee said.
“I hope that when they see videos such as the one with the First Lady of the state, they feel that way. We want to talk to as many people from as many different places as we can.”
