{"id":12179,"date":"2025-09-29T12:57:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T09:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fulbright.bg\/?p=12179"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:23:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T07:23:49","slug":"hayden-hill-eta-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fulbright.bg\/en\/hayden-hill-eta-2025-26\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEverything She Made Put a Smile on Your Face at First Bite”: An American Educator Explores Her Bulgarian Ancestry"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Interview by Viktoria Dailova<\/em><\/p>\n

Although she set foot for the first time in Bulgaria just a month ago, California native Hayden Hill has been hearing about the country since she was a child, thanks to her Bulgarian-American grandmother. This family connection inspired the history major from Oberlin College to spend a year as a Fulbright | America for Bulgaria English Teaching Assistant at the St. Kliment Ohridski High School of Arts in Dobrich. As a former art teacher, Hayden hopes to share with her students her passion for knitting, embroidery and quilting \u2013 and hopefully learn some Bulgarian crafting techniques from her local community. In the coming year, Hayden also hopes to find some long-lost cousins before she heads back to the US to pursue her career in education law with Bulgarian classroom experience under her belt!<\/p>\n

Could you tell us more about your great-great-<\/span><\/strong>grandmother\u2019s story and how her Bulgarian background was kept alive in your family?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My great-great-grandparents were born and raised in Bulgaria, but met and got married in the\u00a0United States. My great-great-grandfather initially worked for railroad\u00a0companies, working his way westward until he ended up in Metaline Falls, Washington. My grandma says that one day while my great-great-grandfather was working, another man came up to him and said that a new Bulgarian woman had just come to town. My great-great-grandfather then responded, “I’m going to marry that girl” – which he did! They got married and started a family in Eastern Washington; my grandma has told me of the fond memories she had as a kid spending her summers with her grandparents on their dairy farm. My grandma remembers falling asleep to the sounds of them speaking in Bulgarian to each other. While living in the US, my great-great-grandparents kept some correspondence with family back in Bulgaria through letters and postcards (we found a copy of one addressed to my great-great grandmother). Unfortunately, Bulgarian traditions\/culture did not get passed down (in ways that I am aware at least – perhaps some of our family traditions came from Bulgarian traditions); my great-grandfather had very much assimilated into American\u00a0culture. However, my grandma has done a lot of genealogy, record keeping, and has done a great job passing down the stories and memories from my lineage to me. In her house she\u00a0has a hallway filled with pictures and captions of the family tree rooted in Bulgaria – from pictures of my great-great grandparents when they were young, to present day pictures of my cousins, my sister and me.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What traditions, crafts, or stories <\/span><\/strong>did you grow up with that came from this side of your family?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My grandma loves<\/em>\u00a0telling and writing short vignettes\u00a0about her life – some of her favorite childhood memories were the summers she spent living with her grandparents on their dairy farm. My great-great-grandmother grew up on farmland in Bulgaria, and helped my great-great-grandfather build up a dairy farm. In addition to her\u00a0help on the farm, great-great-grandmother was a wonderful cook; according to my grandma “everything she made put a smile on your face at first bite.”<\/span><\/p>\n

What does it mean to you personally to be spending a year here, in the country your ancestors once left?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it is amazing that I have an opportunity to build my own connections to my Bulgarian ancestry. Before this year, my only connection to this part of my lineage was through stories from my grandma: both from what she knew about her grandparents, but also her own travels to Bulgaria. During her visits, she was able to meet up with family, see the regions her grandparents grew up in, and learn about Bulgarian culture. Now it’s my turn to add stories about my own experiences in Bulgaria to our family canon.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve mentioned that you\u2019re looking forward to tracing your roots while you\u2019re here \u2013 what <\/span><\/strong>steps do you hope to take? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a binder full of documents from my grandma that include family photos, two family trees (one for my great-great grandfather, one for my great-great grandmother), and some immigration\/census documents for my great-great grandparents. Looking through those records has been interesting but also confusing – sometimes the handwriting is illegible, sometimes the towns are horribly misspelled, which makes it tricky to do research on the towns where they are from. I also want to meet some of my Bulgarian relatives – two of my cousins came to the US when I was a toddler, so while I technically have met them, I would like to meet them again now that I’m grown (and will remember meeting them). Even if I don’t have a Finding Your Roots<\/em>-esque moment of connection to my\u00a0ancestry, I will still be grateful for the opportunity to spend time in Bulgaria, and learn the rich history, culture, and traditions first hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

I did find an old interview of my great-great grandparents, and he was from the village of Ralevo, near Pleven, Bulgaria. My great-great grandmother was from the village of Merichlery, near Chirpan, Bulgaria. I do think that I have some relatives currently living in Southern Bulgaria.<\/span><\/p>\n

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From your perspective, what qualities or values do you see as shared between Bulgarians and Americans, and how do you hope to highlight these common traits during your Fulbright year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One thing I’ve noticed interacting with my students (and talking with other Fulbright ETAs) is how there are some almost universal high school experiences. I’ve found myself relating to some of the stories that my students have shared about their lives inside and outside of class – whether it was excitement over prom, music, friends, sports, performances, or even senioritis\/school burnout. While our experiences are not exactly the same, I have enjoyed seeing that some high school milestones transcend\u00a0cultural differences.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you hope your students and colleagues will take away from working with you?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

America is often said to be a melting pot or mosaic of different cultures; in a way, I am a reflection of that as a Black woman with Bulgarian ancestry. Word has been spreading around school that I have Bulgarian ancestry, and my students and colleagues\u00a0have gotten so excited when they learn that! I hope that through sharing my experiences, I can provide\u00a0another snapshot of American\u00a0culture for my students.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Interview by Viktoria Dailova Although she set foot for the first time in Bulgaria just a month ago, California native Hayden Hill has been hearing about the country since she was a child, thanks to her Bulgarian-American grandmother. This family connection inspired the history major from Oberlin College to spend a year as a Fulbright | America for Bulgaria English Teaching Assistant at the St. Kliment Ohridski High School of Arts in Dobrich. As a former art teacher, Hayden hopes to share with her students her passion for knitting, embroidery and quilting \u2013 and hopefully learn some Bulgarian crafting techniques from her local community. In the coming year, Hayden also hopes to find some long-lost cousins before she heads back to the US to pursue her career in education law with Bulgarian classroom experience under her belt! Could you tell us more about your great-great-grandmother\u2019s story and how her Bulgarian background was kept alive in your family? My great-great-grandparents were born and raised in Bulgaria, but met and got married in the\u00a0United States. My great-great-grandfather initially worked for railroad\u00a0companies, working his way westward until he ended up in Metaline Falls, Washington. My grandma says that one day while my great-great-grandfather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-etas","category-us-grantees"],"yoast_head":"\nFulbright ETAs to Bulgaria | Hayden Hill 2025-26<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hayden Hill embraces her Bulgarian roots as a Fulbright ETA, blending family stories, craft traditions, and classroom dreams.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fulbright.bg\/en\/hayden-hill-eta-2025-26\/\" \/>\n<meta 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