Magyar News, 2005. szeptember-december (16. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

2005-09-01 / 1. szám

f From Hungary with love: ^sophomore Friedman embraces culture

Adrianne Bouchard

Sophomore Dora Friedman brings stunning cultural values to Paly, the high school newsletter, and the community.

To satisfy her desire for Hungarian culture, sophomore Dora Friedman attends Hungarian School, leads a Hungarian scout troop and participates in a folk-dancing group.

“I take pride in my culture. I think it makes me unique; I'm kind of a cultural freak," Friedman said.

Friedman spends every other Sunday at Hungarian school, where she is also a scout leader for a group of seven 8-yearold boys in the Hungarian scouts program. She became a scout at the age of five, along with her twin sister, influenced by their mother, who is Hungarian. She then became a leader after attending a training course in New York over the summer two years ago. Since then she's been a gung-ho scout.

"Scouts is like a really close family," Friedman said. "I met my two best friends doing scouts."

In the Hungarian scouts program, children are taught first aid, how to tie knots, how to put up a tent, how to sharpen a knife and many other useful survival and cultural skills. .The program activities are dictated by a list of tasks the scouts must complete before graduating to differentcolored scarves or becoming scout leaders.

At the age of 13, Friedman decided to change from being a scout to a scout leader. She could have continued as a scout in the program for a couple of years longer, but more leaders were needed. For that purpose she went to the required training course in New York.

To get into the Hungarian Association camp, she was required to take a sevenhour admissions test in Hungarian speaking, writing, history, geography and scout skills.

Once she got there, Friedman and the other trainees were put into a test camp where they were graded on their leadership skills with the attending scouts.

"The test was really to make sure you had down the basics, but once you got there, they graded you on every little thing you did," Friedman said. "It was kind of nerve-wracking, but the camp was really fun."

At the end of the camp, the trainees became qualified as official scout leaders, after passing another test of their scoutknowledge. This test included information the trainees learned at the camp. Once she passed, Friedman was given the leader's pendant and a scout troop of her own to lead.Friedman now meets with her troop every other Sunday to teach them the required skills, to take them on field trips and to plan other activities for them to do.

"I learned a lot through scouts," Friedman said. " I got a lot of leadership skills from it."

After being highly involved in the Hungarian Association's scout program for 10 years, she joined a Hungarian folkdancing group less than two years ago, along with her two best friends from scouts. She immediately fell in love with the traditional and non-traditional dances of her culture.

Friedman is one of the youngest members of the group, which has performed at many functions — including weddings and various cultural festivals. The group performs dances from all the different regions of Hungary and wears the traditional Hungarian costume.

This summer, Friedman will travel to Hungary for the third time in her life to attend a water-polo camp. She began water-polo just this year, playing on the Palo Alto High School Junior Varsity team. Friedman, who has been swimming

Sophomore Dora Friedman brings stunning cultural values to Paly and the community

for SCRA since she was little and is also on the Paly swim team, enjoys the sport and plans to continue participating next year.

Friedman will also attend the scout camp in New York again this summer to train new scout leaders for next year. This will be her third year attending the scout camp.

"I get to meet a lot of people from all around the world there. It's really interesting," Friedman said.

Friedman's involvement with the Hungarian community has always been a personal decision; her ties with her culture have created lasting friendships.

"I get a lot out of [the Hungarian Association]," Friedman said. "It's not like my parents pushed me into it. By being Hungarian, you are accepted as part of a community. It's really nice to feel that way." Courtesy of

The Paly Voice Palo Alto H.S.

Left: Performing Scouts in Cleveland, Ohio. Below: “Royal Feast”at the camp in Australia