Endre Mészáros

was born in Hungary; after receiving his degree in agronomy he studied management in the United States. He has worked in the field of international insurance for over twenty years; his professional career has given him the opportunity to live in seven different countries for varying lengths of time. His job brought him to New York in 2009 and here he started his family. He has been a member of the Arany János Hungarian School community since 2017 and has been a member of the school board since 2018. He has always been keenly interested in the process of cultivating an awareness of Hungarian identity; to the present day he remains in close contact with several Hungarian communities living in the Carpathian basin outside the borders of Hungary, and other communities in South America, in the Near East and in Western Europe. For these reasons, the Hungarian community in New York is important to him; his children, being raised in a mixed marriage, are active members of the community.

Ildikó Nagy

was born in Győr and has a degree in sociology from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). While living in Hungary she worked for the Institute of Political Science, Hungarian Academy of Sciences; in addition, she was the organizer of the jazz and folk music components of the Mediawave International Film and Music Festival. She has lived in the United States since 2009, has been director of the Hungarian House of New York from 2014 and currently is enrolled in the masters program in Nonprofit Management at Columbia University. She has been involved with Hungarian folkdance and folk music for over twenty-five years. She is the leader of the Délibáb Folk Dance Ensemble in New York and regularly organizes folklore events for adults and children. Since 2014 she has led the Bóbita Mommy-and-me playgroup and since 2016 also has taught the folkdance component of the curriculum of the Arany János Hungarian School. She has been a member of the school board since 2018, with her main areas of responsibility being organization of community events and grant writing.

Enikő Oláh Gyöngyösi

was born and raised in Hungary and has lived in the United States since 1999. She was a licensed accountant in Hungary and also has an associate degree in accounting from Kingsborough Community College. She recognizes the vital importance of educating Hungarian children living outside the territory of Hungary about the language, culture and history of Hungary, including her own child. Having this in mind, she and her child joined the Bóbita group of the Arany János Hungarian School in 2016; from 2018 she has been a member of the school board in the office of treasurer.

Ildikó Sebestyén 

was born in Szeged, Hungary, living there until the completion of her Master of Science degree in Biology from the University of Szeged, in 2005. After living and working in Spain and Denmark, she moved to New York in 2009. In 2013 she became a certified birth doula and childbirth educator and while living in Seattle between 2014 and 2018 she was a volunteer with the Hungarian School of Washington and the Istvan Fekete Hungarian Scouts of Seattle. After moving back to New York, Ildiko joined the leadership team of Arany Janos Hungarian School in 2021 to primarily help with the school’s online presence, website and other promotional tasks. As a Hungarian living abroad, Ildiko finds it important to preserve Hungarian culture, history, language, and traditions. With her British husband, she manages to raise her children bilingually, which she believes the Hungarian School has greatly contributed and helped.

Zsuzsanna Szalai

was born in Budapest and completed her studies in Latin/Hungarian language and literature at the School of Liberal Arts, University of Debrecen. She has lived in the United States since 2000; she received her masters in computer science in 2012 from Queens College, CUNY, and worked for the Morgan Library and Museum. From 2015 she has been employed at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation as grant manager. She has been a member of the Arany János Hungarian School community since 2016 and has been a member of the school board since 2018, where her primary area of responsibility has been to plan the program curriculum and school communications as well as other tasks related to administrative planning.