Discover Romania: Culture, Identity, and Heritage at April Fourth Friday

The Valparaiso International Center invites the community to its April 2025 Fourth Friday event, featuring a special presentation by Ana-Maria Haiduc, a local educator and PhD candidate in mathematics education. Join us for a captivating evening.

Friday, April 25, 2025, from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Trinity Lutheran Church
201 N. Washington in Valparaiso, Indiana.

Ana-Maria will share the rich cultural tapestry of Romania and the personal stories that have shaped her identity.

Ana-Maria and her husband, Ovidiu, have lived in Valparaiso since 2009 with their children, Emily and Fabio. Originally from Romania, Ana-Maria began her teaching career in her home country and continued it in the United States after earning her American teaching license. She has since worked as a mathematics teacher across Northwest Indiana, including in South Bend, Portage, and Valparaiso. While teaching full-time, she earned a Master of Science in Mathematics from Purdue University in 2017 and is currently completing her PhD in mathematics education. Her dissertation research focuses on teachers’ planning reasoning and the application of care theory in education. Today, she serves as a mathematics interventionist at Chesterton High School and as a mathematics instructor at Purdue University Northwest.

Deeply connected to her Romanian roots, Ana-Maria will guide attendees through Romania’s cultural identity, exploring themes such as the peaceful coexistence of various ethnicities, the Via Transilvanica—a 1,420 km route connecting communities across the country—and the vibrant folk traditions, costumes, and music that represent different regions of Romania. She will also share personal reflections on her family still living in Romania, including her brother Dumitru and his family, her mother Aurelia, and her great-grandmother Raveca.

In her free time, Ana-Maria enjoys playing the mandolin, learning languages such as Spanish, Hungarian, Hebrew, and Italian, and refreshing her German skills, which she originally learned during Romania’s communist era. When the weather allows, she loves spending time gardening. Her husband, Ovidiu, works as a shift manager at Cleveland-Cliffs in Gary and earned his degree in metallurgy from the Polytechnical University in Bucharest. He came to the United States after winning the Green Card Lottery in 1995.

Believing that the stories we live shape who we are, Ana-Maria offers a unique opportunity to explore Romania’s essence through personal experience, tradition, and cultural pride. The evening will conclude with an engaging Q&A session, inviting attendees to connect and learn more.