With tears in their eyes, 201 new U.S. citizens sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the student center building at UNT Dallas this month.

Person after person from one of more than 50 countries stood while the crowd clapped and cheered. More than 200 men and women took an oath of allegiance during a citizenship ceremony on Thursday afternoon at the student center building at UNT Dallas.

For some, the journey to U.S. citizenship has taken decades. Others started the process only months ago.

But the naturalization ceremony did more than transform their legal status, according to attendees. It ushered in a profound sense of security and belonging for them and their families.

“It was long for me since I became a permanent resident in 2017,″ said Marcel Stady, from Canada. “Just even having the ability to vote now and just feel more welcome now.”

Representatives from the consulates of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Canada, and Peru, along with various community leaders were in attendance to witness and support the naturalization ceremony.

“This is the biggest ceremony of naturalization that we have held in the university,” said Mara Queiroz Vaughn, a Spanish lecturer at UNT Dallas, who was appointed as one of eight citizenship ambassadors nationwide in 2022.

For some, the journey to U.S. citizenship was fraught with challenges.

Maria Idalia Martinez, from Guanajuato, Mexico, decided to gain her citizenship after spending 20 years as a permanent resident. She said she felt nervous at first but learned to prepare herself for the road ahead.

“I did it for my children and my grandchildren,” she said. “They have their roots here and they are not going back to Mexico. This is their country, and now this is my country, too.”

For Angelica Gonzales, from Mexico, the path to becoming a citizen was hard, battling stereotypes that people like her aren’t educated.

“Racism still exists to this day,” she said. “I think it is a privilege and honor to my family to have me as a citizen now because my parents are really humble.”

In 2017, Queiroz Vaughn and other community members created “Spanish in the Community,” a non-credit class at UNT Dallas, which helps people prepare for the citizenship process.

“We are launching for the first time that the program will become hybrid for those who can’t attend in person because of a job,” Vaughn said. “People can start with the non-credit class as soon as they are eligible for citizenship.”

Organizations such as The National Educational Service Centers, and Proyecto Inmigrante, among others, collaborate with Vaughn to make the classes free for residents.

UNT Dallas offers classes as part of the program to obtain a GED and learn English for professionals.

“For these classes, all that is needed is an identification card and a phone number,” said Vaughn.

In a hospital bed at Baylor University Medical Center, Daniela Fonseca fought for her life.

As a paramedic, she worked to help others.

“That was always Dani. Ever since she was a little girl, she was caring,” said Ana Prado Fonseca.

But the 31-year-old succumbed to injuries after police say another driver failed to help her.

Prado Fonseca said her sister was headed to work on the morning of September 21 when she was hit at the intersection of Carroll and Ross Avenues.

Police said the driver of a silver 2005 Acura MDX with Texas license plate KJN5671 fled.

According to the family, a good Samaritan tried to stop him. But two weeks after Fonseca’s death, police are still searching for the suspect.

“The pain is immense. It’s hard. Especially seeing my mom suffer the way she’s been suffering. It’s really hard to see. My nieces, my nephews, everybody’s in pain. Daniela was very loved. She was the baby of the family,” said Prado Fonseca.

Family said Fonseca worked two jobs to put herself through school. She worked as a paramedic for four years.

Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

As they continue to grieve, Fonseca’s family is urging the person responsible to do the right thing and turn themselves in.

“My sister doesn’t and didn’t deserve this. She didn’t. I mean, she saved lives. She was a paramedic that was risking her life out there every single day, and for this to happen has been a nightmare,” she said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective J. Keteltas at 214-67103437 or email james.keteltas@dallaspolice.gov. Tips can also be made to Crime Stoppers 24/7 by calling (214) 373-TIPS.

At the end of the 2023 season, the Dallas Wings were one of the top four teams in the WNBA.

The team had increased its regular season win total and the length of its playoff runs over the last several years, including a trip to the 2023 semifinals, where they lost to the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces.

“The expectation was that 2024 was going to be another step forward,” Wings president and CEO Greg Bibb said in an interview this week.

Instead, the Wings took a step backward, missing the playoffs and finishing 9-31, their worst win percentage since 2019 after a spate of injuries. They also found themselves on the losing end of 14 games decided by 10 points or less. Had these games gone their way, 23-17 would have made the playoffs.

For the Wings to achieve their goal of reaching the WNBA Finals — in which the Minnesota Lynx hold a 1-0 lead over the New York Liberty going into Sunday’s Game 2 — Bibb said a few things need to happen, but players staying healthy tops the list.

“Disappointing is the best word to use to describe the ‘24 season,” said Bibb, the organization’s president and CEO since 2017, though he doesn’t want to make excuses.

“In our business, you are what your record says you are,” Bibb said. “But that said, we did experience a significant number of injuries.”

The biggest star to catch the Wings’ injury bug was forward Satou Sabally, the No. 2 overall draft pick in the 2020 WNBA draft, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury for the first 25 games of the season. The league’s Most Improved Player in 2023 had averaged a career-high 18.6 points and 8.1 rebounds and was named to the All-WNBA First Team.

Other key players struck by injuries included forwards Natasha Howard and Maddy Siegrist, the third overall pick in the 2023 WNBA draft.

That left guard Arike Ogunbowale to carry much of the load. The veteran averaged 22.2 points per game, became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer and was named to the All-WNBA Second Team in 2024, but her performance couldn’t overcome the team’s personnel issues.

“Our lineups kept changing because of injuries and we didn’t really get into a groove,” said Siegrist, who suffered a finger injury this year. “We were dropping a lot of close games early and then we had a couple more injuries and we couldn’t really as a team get over that hump.”

As the Detroit Shock and the Tulsa Shock, the organization won WNBA titles in 2003, 2006 and 2008. Last season’s semifinal appearance was the organization’s best finish since since moving to Dallas-Fort Worth in 2016 and rebranding as the Wings.

“We were really bad defensively this year, so I think we need an organizational recommitment to the defensive side of the ball,” Bibb said. “From a specific roster perspective, some additional veteran leadership and some experience at the point guard position, this early in our offseason evaluation, are probably the two items that are at the top of our priority list.”

Siegrist said a finals appearance would also depend on how well the team is working together come playoffs.

“You’ve got to be gelling at the right time,” she said. “You need all the pieces. You need seven, eight deep of real strong players because of different lineups, stuff like that. You want to be able to feel comfortable every time with the group you’re putting out.”

The Wings are already looking ahead to 2025 by collecting information from the previous season, which ended with a 98-84 loss to the Aces, and strategizing.

“There are some complexities to go forward,” Bibb said, “not only for us, but for every team around the league as we head toward next year and beyond, because you’ll have an expansion draft.”

The WNBA is adding a 13th franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, in 2025. They’ll start to assemble an inaugural roster with a Dec. 6 expansion draft that Golden State the ability to choose from a pool of available players as designated by each of the WNBA’s current 12 teams.

Portland and Toronto will also participate in an expansion draft when they add WNBA teams in 2026.

“There are some other things on the horizon that just make the next couple years a little bit different and more difficult than a typical cycle of years,” Bibb said.

Big changes are coming for the Wings, too. In April, the Dallas City Council approved a 15-year, $19 million use agreement for the Wings to play in Memorial Arena, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center downtown, starting in 2026. The Wings’ home court has been at UT Arlington’s College Park Center.

Bibb said upcoming projects, including the construction of a practice facility, will create “more opportunity to generate revenue, more ability to impact the community and first and foremost, services to help our athletes be the best they can be, which ultimately leads to championships.”

The upcoming expansion drafts and the Wings’ pending move to Dallas are emblematic of the women’s basketball boom. In 2023, the Wings saw record attendance. The organization sold out season ticket memberships for the first time in its history, with individual ticket sales up more than 1,100%.

“I just knew it was a matter of time until the right set of circumstances aligned and the league really started to take off,” said Bibb, who’s been involved with the WNBA since 2007. “And that’s what’s happened the last few years.”