Written by Sándor Zsuzsanna. Translated by Csilla Yee.

Susan Gulyas – despite being born in the United States, still living in Washington State, and never having attended a Hungarian school – her Hungarian is excellent.  An engineer, she is a manager at one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, The Boeing Company.  She established the Hungary for Love non-profit organization two years ago to support disadvantaged youth, mostly Roma.  The organization helped remodel the Ghandi High School for Roma located in Pécs, as well as the Snétberger Music Talent Center located in Felsőörs.  In Budapest, she shared her life story with 168 Óra Magazine.

I was waiting for Susan Gulyas in a coffee shop in Liszt Ferenc Square.  All I knew about her was that she is a manager at The Boeing Company and spends her vacation here in Hungary, although she is not vacationing; she comes to support children in need.  I expected to see a business woman wearing expensive jewelry, but a young woman wearing jeans stepped into the coffee shop instead.  She casually shook my hand and we began speaking informal Hungarian right away.  Only from her American accent did I know she wasn’t a local.

Susan is proud to be Hungarian.  Her father was born in Mezőkövesd and worked as a stone mason.  Her mother grew up in a small village named Pacsér.  Separately, they both adventured off to Germany where they found each other and fell in love.  They decided to move to America to provide a better future for their family.

Susan’s parents crossed the ocean in 1972 and ended up in New York.  Her father worked in construction and her mother cooked and cleaned for a wealthy American family.  Their daughter was born in 1979.  They kept their Hungarian traditions, only speaking Hungarian with their daughter at home, confident she’d learn English later in school.  To their surprise, the little girl was secretly learning English by watching TV and spoke fluently by the time she entered elementary school.  She particularly liked math.  With time, she became interested in architecture and automobile design.  In high school, her teachers encouraged her parents to provide higher education for their talented daughter, only they couldn’t afford the tuition.  Her parents attended church, and so they prayed for a miracle so they could send their daughter to college.  Their prayers were answered.

“The American couple my mom worked for really loved my mom.  They treated us like family; they even paid my college tuition.  We have them to thank for everything.”

Susan was accepted into the mechanical engineering program at the University of South Florida.  Years later, she graduated college and was hired by The Boeing Company to be an engineer.  The whole Gulyas family moved to Washington State.  It seemed like she was on her way to success, but she was unsatisfied with her life.  After a bad breakup, she struggled to find her place in the world.  Looking back, she self-critically says about herself:

“I was always blaming others for everything and I argued a lot with my parents.  Nothing ever seemed good enough for me.”

Her mother suggested she travel somewhere for a little while, to see what the world is like where people are hungry and destitute.  Perhaps that would change her perspective on life.

Susan attended church but her faith mattered little to her.  Still, she decided to travel to Thailand with her church.  In 2009, these young Christian Americans organized a mission trip to serve at a Buddhist orphanage, home to two hundred orphans.  Many of them were abandoned because their parents could not support them.

“They truly had nothing, no one.  I fell in love with those kids.  I realized then how incredibly fortunate I was, how much love I was given, that I never appreciated.”

After Thailand, Susan’s life changed tremendously.  She grew closer in relationship to her Christian community.  While still in Thailand, she wanted to work in missions somewhere, but she didn’t know where to start.  Where should she go?  She didn’t know where she would be needed.  She prayed for an answer.  Only then did she feel the “call” to Hungary, back to her roots.

A year later, Susan arrived here alone knowing only a few people.  She volunteered to teach English at a summer camp in Cegléd, asking people what it was like to live in Hungary and what the major issues are.  The Hungarians shared a host of troubles with her that ranged from unemployment, to the “Roma problem”, to the mass exodus of young educated people.  She felt like she could help disadvantaged children the most, to help them understand how an education can change everything for them, like it did for her.  But she felt that supporting them financially wasn’t enough.  She felt compelled to go to the smallest villages to meet and talk with these people.

Her friends in Washington know all about her fascination with Hungary.  To support their endeavors, the Gulyas family started fundraising.  They organized a large Hungarian dinner party where Susan’s mother cooked and in a week, they were able to raise $5,000.  The entire amount went to their Hungarian charity work.

In 2011, Susan, her parents, and her American friends traveled to a small village named Kékcse.  It was actually her American connections that brought the team’s attention to the needs of the people.  They aimed to help to repair a worn down church building in the center of this 250-person Roma community.

“The locals were really happy we were there. When we arrived early in the morning to work, they were already there waiting at the construction site.  At night when we left, they stayed and kept working.  It’s not true that the Roma are lazy and don’t want to work. That’s simply an unfair stereotype.”

On their last day there, the Americans hosted a party for the whole community.  The local Roma pastor said goodbye, saying:

 “The Hungarian people don’t even know we exist.  But our American friends, and the people who supported them, know we exist.  We can’t thank God enough for the love you’ve shown us…”

On their second mission trip, Susan and her American friends traveled to the Gandhi High School for Roma in Pécs.  They painted walls alongside the students.  Later, they were introduced to the Snétberger Music Talent Center in Felsőörs and donated towards learning materials for the music students.  While there, they also invited the underprivileged yet very talented art students of the Real Pearl Foundation to paint murals used to beautify Snétberger’s newest construction project – a recording studio.  Upon completion of the recording studio, these murals will be sold to raise funds that will support the work of both Hungarian organizations.  The children have never traveled beyond their village, let alone to Lake Balaton, so Susan and her team took them there.

Susan still has big dreams to pursue.  That’s why she started Hungary for Love.  She dreams of building schools where both Roma and non-Roma students can study alongside one another, as well as a community center to provide shelter and rehabilitation for the homeless, a safe and supportive place where they get back on their feet again.  She wants to continue supporting capable unprivileged youth.  Of course, a lot of money will be needed to achieve all of this.

Susan has even stronger ties to our country now, partnering with such organizations as the Hungarian Baptist Church and the Christian Gipsy Mission Foundation.  She is open to potentially moving to Hungary one day to commit to Hungary for Love’s long-term work.  She loves her engineering work, but she loves her service work even more.

Despite being amongst only 10% of women in Engineering at Boeing, she was promoted to management after only ten years.  Even in the “Land of Possibilities”, her career is exceptional.  And while she could choose to live a luxurious life, she instead drives an old car and lives in a small home in Washington.  She’d rather spend her money on more important things – giving to support people in need.  She believes:

“To whom much is given much more is required. True wealth comes from giving of what we have to others.”